


Battle In San Fransokyo

by Thorongil82



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Big Hero 6: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: A Year After Big Hero 6, Angst, Arena fights, Big Hero 6 Spoilers, Blood and Injury, Bot Fighting, Crime Fighting, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Energy Weapons, Gen, MMA, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Underground, Underground Fights, Violence, long chapters, not everything is as it seems, tournament
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-07 18:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 26,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16413254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorongil82/pseuds/Thorongil82
Summary: Nearly a year after the Krei Tech Industries attack, the band of heroes live in a relatively peaceful San Fransokyo for the time being, having dealt with most of the crime that crops up in the city. But with the arrival of some new faces to the area, is the city about to gain some real excitement that has not been around for quite some time?





	1. Old Habits Die Hard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there. Not going to say too much here. Just that this is a multi-chapter story that, for the moment, I only have 3 chapters written for. Pretty much have the entire main storyline planned out, just need to get round to writing it. Enjoy!

Illuminating the darkening sky is the vast city of San Fransokyo, the brightly lit buildings shining out as dusk falls overhead. The spectrum of colours, from the energetic electric blue to the warming golden yellow through to the darker mysterious luminescence of violet and purple light, cast back the darkness over the city, creating a feeling of life and excitement as the city bathed in vibrant radiance showed no signs of slowing down to sleep with the eventide approaching. Looking out from the bay that flowed into the ocean, San Fransokyo appeared bright and alive as the sun set before it, the glowing orb disappearing beneath the horizon sprawled out over the ocean, the curvature of the world draped in a warm glow. Leaving the city and crossing the bay, the Golden Sun Bridge spanned the gap between the city and the rest of the continent, the scarlet red steel overpass decorated with lustrous orbs of emerald green, rose red, marigold and ivory white light. Above the city the faint shimmering of stars begin to appear high in the twilight sky, the heavenly lustre of the celestial bodies faintly dotting the darkening sky as their number grows greater as time passes on. Further out from the city, from the Golden Sun Bridge, the stars grow in number and light, illuminating the dark sky in an otherworldly luminance.

Sailing in from the western waters is a large cruise ship, dotted with lights of all colours. Up on the top deck, a party seemed to be taking place as flashing lights and booming music blasted from the top level of the pearly white vessel as it glides along the waters leading into San Fransokyo, buffered little by the rocking of the small, gentle waves. Out of many windows along the huge sea vessel shone lights of the many various rooms within, the few dark windows marking bedrooms with no one inside or with curtains drawn shut. Many travellers within the vessel seem to be enjoying their last moments on the cruise ship before it comes into port, most partying up on the top deck, some eating in the dining room and some dancing in the ballroom with the live band playing tunes of various genres; classical, jazz, blues, R&B and soul. Regardless of their activities, all seem to be having the time of their lives, living and celebrating like there was no tomorrow while they still could.

The horn of the ship bellows out loudly as it passes beneath the Golden Sun Bridge, the crowd partying on top whooping and cheering in response, a few overly enthusiastically in their drunken states. They wave down at passing vessels as the cruise ship sails by, those aboard the smaller ships, house boats and yachts waving and shouting back up at them. In the night, the lights of the anchored ships were bright as their passengers relaxed out on the calm waters, the shine from the sea vessels making them appear like golden flowers blooming on a blackened tree. Before the ship in the distance, a long white building came into view on the water’s edge, the luminescent sign ‘ _Port of San Fransokyo’_ becoming visible and discernible.

Out on the bow of the ship, away from all the partying, three figures lingered. The largest of which, his body seemingly rippling with strength and power as his muscles bulged from underneath his black t-shirt and denim jeans, was sat down on a large white chair, having propped his trunk-like legs up on the round plastic table accommodating it. The second person was stood next to the hulking figure, his hands in the pockets of his suit jacket, his rotund physique letting his gut clothed in a blue buttoned shirt and red striped tie push out slightly from the suit jacket. While the first man had his head turned to the port side, looking out over the darkened sea, white and golden lights from other towns and cities on the continent dotting the land beyond, the second was looking forwards at the third figure leaning up against the railing on the starboard side of the bow. Dressed in slightly baggy black sports pants and a tawny brown leather jacket, with a hickory brown Stetson on his head and a weatherworn khaki knapsack slung over one shoulder, the third person gazed upon the city of San Fransokyo, taking in the vibrant and exciting illumination. With no lights on the ship shining down on their current area, the bright shine from the city reaching out over the darkened waters becomes the only light to bring the figures into view, though not focused enough to reveal many features of the men.

“San Fransokyo …” the man on the railing spoke, his voice soft and deep, providing a mysterious aura to the person. “It’s been a few years since I was last here. Not much seems to have changed.”

“Well, it’s been much longer since we were last here,” the man in the suit replied, gesturing to his companion in the seat next to him. “So things look a little different from our perspective.”

“It could be the same or it could be a wasteland for all I care,” pointed out the man sitting down, his thick arms and hands stretching up into the sky before resting behind his head. “I’m not here for the sights.”

“It’s not a bad thing to look at while you’re preparing for your match,” the hatted man chuckled, looking over his shoulder at the other two.

The bulging man swung his legs off the table and leapt to his feet, throwing a few shadow punches in the air in front of him before bouncing on his toes.

“I couldn’t care less. I’m just here to beat this guy up and go home,” he replies gruffly.

“Fine, then. You can look around while I’m doing what I’m here for,” the man responds with a laugh, shaking his head in amusement and turning back to face the city. “There’s plenty of time.”

“Now, now … no need for things to get heated,” the second man interjects as the hulking giant cracks his neck sharply, standing between the two. “We each do what we’re in this city for and we do it how we want. Any spare time is ours for what we want to do, if we want to do anything.”

“Of course,” the man on the railing acknowledged, spinning around and waving the suited man off. “I’m just playing around with him.”

“That’s a dangerous game to play,” the suited man comments as the muscled companion sits back down.

“One which only his family, you and I seem able to play,” the other pointed out, slinging the knapsack off his shoulder and opening it up, checking the contents inside.

The propellers at the stern of the cruise ship audibly whirs to life, slowing the sea vessel down as it sails closer and closer to the port, crawling along the darkened waters reflecting the radiance of San Fransokyo. The enthusiastic voice of the MC for the party up top rang out from the speakers, amplifying his charismatic and care free tone across the entire ship.

“Ladies and gentlemen, partygoers of all ages,” he spoke, cheers and whoops coming from the travellers on top of the cruise ship. “I’m afraid that the party ends here for now.”

Sounds of disappointment and even a few boos are projected over the speakers, followed by the amused chuckles of the MC.

“I know, I know, I know …” he chuckled, walking around the stage with the corded microphone in hand. “I’d like to keep partying too. But look around you! We’re about to dock in glorious San Fransokyo!”

Cheers and whoops sound out again, the voyagers livened up again at the announcement that their destination, temporary for those transferring over to another transportation, was only minutes away.

“So, if I’m able to make a request, I’d like you all to follow along and do your best,” the MC continued, a cheeky grin spreading from ear to ear. A couple whoops and whistles come from the less sober members of the audience, with the MC winking in the direction of some women who had made the noises to him. With a nod to the band behind him, they start playing a tune, giving the MC the hip-hop beat he required as he began to rap and sing his instructions.

“ _If you all could please make your way to your rooms,_  
While this here band still blasts and booms.  
Make sure you collect all of your luggage,  
We don’t want anything lost on this beautiful voyage.  
This ain’t the time to lie down and dream.  
Get up! Get moving! Start running on steam!  
Once you have all your personal things,  
Dance your way to the dining room while this here man sings.”

An African-American man jumps to the stage, dressed in a white suit and tie, with a jet black shirt underneath. As he brought up and waved his hands with a toothy smile and a laugh, the crowd cheer and applaud the singer next in line.

“ _From there, everyone will be directed,_  
On the way to where the exits are located.  
Again, congrats to Dave! Such a fun loving guy.  
He and his wife sure know how to make a honeymoon fly right by!”

Lots of laughs sound out from the voyagers on the top of the cruise ship as a sleek Latino man and the Spanish woman beside him raise up their glasses to the MC.

“ _Once you’ve left the cruise, there’s no going back._  
Double check to make sure there isn’t anything that you lack.  
We’d like to thank you kindly before you go,  
And welcome, one and all, to beautiful San Fransokyo!”

With the last word rapped and his song finished, the MC bowed to the travellers as they stood up and applauded. They showered their fun loving MC with cheers and adulations before the large pack of partyers slowly began to shuffle back inside the cruise ship, making their way to their accommodations within the sea vessel to collect their belongings while the band continued with their next song.

“He’s decent, I guess,” the stout man commented, the ghost of a sneer appearing on his face in the faint light. “An interesting way to keep everyone’s attention on the safety procedure.”

“Don’t worry, he’s no match for what you can do on the stick,” the hulking man reassured, patting his companion on the back.

“I doubt anyone can contend with your captivating mic work,” the man in the hat added, closing his knapsack and slinging it back over his right shoulder.

“So, I take it you’re doing the usual?” the corpulent man queered, looking at the man in the hat.

“May as well,” he sighed in response, turning around and looking back at the city as the ship slowly crawled along the waters, the cruise ship finally pulling up alongside the port. “I can look around-”

“And get a workout at the same time. Yeah, we’ve heard it all before,” the giant interjected, waving him off with a large hand. “Check out any possible competition and whatnot.”

“Well, it is true. You’d probably do the same in my position.”

“I pretty much am in your position and I’ve never done that.”

“Except you’re far more noticeable and well know than I am. And I know you aren’t about to go running around with a mask covering your face.”

“Damn right, I’m not!”

The ship finally comes to a stop at the port, the propellers powering down as the crew on land start tying the ship down, catching the ropes thrown down from the cruise ship by the sailors and wheeling the ramps over to the cargo holds and the exit points for the passengers aboard the ships.

“So, I’ll see you guys at the apartment?” the hatted man inquired, placing a hand on his Stetson whilst glancing at the other two men.

“I don’t see where else we’d be,” the smaller man answered with a shrug of his shoulders. “Unless, of course, we end up in the bar of the hotel.”

“Just checking.”

The man with the knapsack tilted his hat down and made to walk along the pathway running from the bow to the nearest exit point, a stair ramp being wheeled up and secured into place. Standing on the darkened forecastle above the bow watching the traveller leave, barely visible against the night sky, was a hooded figure. Their features obscured by the shadows of the cruise ship, their silhouette just barely detectable by the lack of presence of lights and stars blinking in the background, the shrouded stranger looked up from watching the man in the hat walk down the ramp to gazing up at the city of San Fransokyo. Their tattered cloak swayed slightly in the gentle sea breeze as they turned and walked away, out of sight from anyone’s possible line of sight and melting into the darkness beyond.

* * *

Pumped up cheers and shouts erupt from a dully lit alley complex in downtown San Fransokyo, hidden from the light of the main central district by the various, closely situated, bricked shops, cafes and tenements. At the heart of the maze of alleyways, glowing red paper lanterns and flickering lights illuminate the reason for the vocalised cheers, the crowd within with their attention on the battle before them. The clash of metal rings out as two robots battle for supremacy, their crafted weaponry clanging against one another with sparks flying. With a powerful push, both robots are sent sliding backwards. One robot, its armour coloured in blues, browns and yellows, designed like a Viking warrior, rolled through along its back. The Viking bot finished the roll back on its feet, bringing up its spiked shield and swinging the axe for its other arm around in a circle. The bot fighter, a burly man with long golden hair pulled back into braids, a long handlebar moustache, denim jeans and a slightly faded storm grey t-shirt with the Scottish flag on it, gave out a loud laugh as his robot beat its axe against the shield, taunting his opponent.

The opposing bot fighter, a youthful looking woman with a cool, calm expression, electric blue hair that covered one of her eyes and was drawn into a wild, bushy ponytail that flared out into different bangs and tails, wearing a black and purple hoodie and navy blue skinny jeans, smirked at her opponent and pressed a couple of buttons and pushed the joysticks on her controller. Her bot, a red and black Slasher robot with three razor sharp claws on each arm, dug its right claw into the ground. Sparks flew off the concrete as the bot slid to a halt, leaving long grooves where the sharp appendages had dug into the arena floor, before the bot stood up and slashed an X in front of it.

The bots advanced once again, the Slasher bot with its claws raised almost in a boxing stance and the Viking bot leading with its shield. When they came close, the Viking swung wildly with its axe, which was parried with the right claw of the Slasher. The Viking then went to shield bash, looking to embed its spikes into the opposing combatant. The Slasher, in response, quickly spun around via the midsection, its legs not needing to move, and countered the attack with the back of the same claw, travelling in an upwards motion. The Viking bot was sent staggering back by the parring blow, stopping its fall by thrusting its shield and axe out when it fell to catch itself before pushing itself back up. They advance once again, their weapons locking up as the Slasher blocked first the axe strike then the shield bash. Both bots pushed against one another, trying to overpower the other, before the Viking bot reared its head back and brought it crashing down onto the head of its opponent.

The Slasher staggered back from the unexpected blow, which then was made more unbalanced by the power of the Viking winning over. As it teetered, the Viking’s bot fighter let out a triumphant roar as his bot raised up its axe. The axe fell hard and fast, but was blocked by both claws just in time, the axe pressing down against the crossed blades. The bot fighter looked over to his opponent confidently, but his confidence immediately was replaced by confusion as he saw his opponents’ expression.

“Game over,” she answered his unspoken question with a wicked grin, before pressing a button located on the top of her controller.

At the press of the button, her Slasher bot transformed, with the outer two blades on each claw splitting apart, resulting in the bot having six arms and blades instead of two arms and claws. The two blades that were in the middle remained crossed over, holding the axe in place, while the other four spread out and curled in, ready to strike. In a panic, the male bot fighter ordered his bot to attack with the shield, which was quickly parried with the two free blades on the right hand side. The modified Slasher then stabbed forwards with the lower left blade, piercing the metal armour of the Viking bot, before side stepping and slashing down through the back of the Viking with the upper right blade.

As the Viking bot turned around, a puncture hole torn in the lower torso from the stab and a laceration across the upper back, the Slasher lunged again, stabbing and slashing with a fury. The Viking could block a couple of blades at a time with the shield and axe, but couldn’t stop every attack as the opposing bot continued to scratch against the armour and pierce through with its stabs, occasionally ripping open a tear with the slashes as well. Completely in hysteria, the male bot fighter ordered his bot to go on the desperate offensive, slashing and striking at whatever it could. With a knowing smirk, the female bot fighter began to tease her opponent; letting her bot back off before quickly dodging every attack the Viking sent its way.

After several seconds of this antic, the Slasher leapt at the Viking and was caught by a well-timed block with the shield. When the Viking sent it flying as it threw it off the shield, the Slasher rolled through and started scuttling around like a spider. His eyes widening in alarm, the male bot fighter charged again, trying to hack and beat down the opponent. To his dismay, the Slasher was even faster when in spider mode, allowing it to roll and leap away with the greatest of ease. Scuttling behind the Viking, the Slasher leapt onto its back and held on by latching onto the legs of the Viking with its feet and wrapping two blades around to the torso, digging into the armour. As the Viking bot spun and flailed its weapons in a desperate attempt to throw the bot off its back, the Slasher rained down quick, fierce stabs with its remaining four blades, puncturing the back with many holes. The eyes of the Viking quickly went dull after a few seconds of this lethal attack before it slumped forwards to the ground, landing with a dull thud on the concrete. Smoke pours out of the pierced holes in its back as the Slasher scuttles off and reforms back into the two armed clawed version, while most members in the crowd cheer loudly.

“The winner, by complete destruction, Akiza!” the fight announcer proclaimed, a man with messy jet black hair, wearing a black leather biker jacket and ripped jeans, and holding a small closed metal box. The majority of the crowd cheer as he gestures to the female bot fighter, a few grumbling as money is exchanged between most of the crowd watching.

“Alright, who’s next?!” Akiza loudly challenged as she collected her winnings out of the metal box the announcer is holding, her voice rising above the noise of the crowd as she placed the rolls of money in her hoodie. “Is there anyone left that has the guts to challenge my killer, the Slashing Nightmare?!”

Many of the bot fighters present glance nervously at each other, clutching their bots apprehensively or trying to hide them behind their backs. She circles around the ring with her arms outstretched, inviting any challengers to step forwards.

“No one? No one at all?”

“Come on, folks. Are you really going to let her leave with another seven wins under her belt?” the fight announcer questioned, looking at the fighters in the crowd. “Will her undefeated streak stay as such for _another_ night?”

“Um … c-can I try?” a small, timid voice spoke, cutting through the silence.

The crowd around the source of the voice parted, revealing a small male teenager in a navy blue hooded jacket, a red hero t-shirt and a pair of baggy peanut brown shorts. The boy looked at the two in the ring with wide questioning brown eyes, his messy raven hair sticking out everywhere as he clutches a black robot, the arms, legs and what seemed to be ears polygonal in shape attached to three metal balls, with a drawn on yellow smiley face.

“I have a robot,” the teenager said with a nervous smile, holding up his bot for them both to see. “I built it myself.”

“Come on, kid. You really think that your little friendly bot there is going to defeat her?” the announcer laughed with everyone in the crowd joining in, while Akiza just looking at the boy with a slightly amused expression.

“Well …” the teenager replied, looking up and rolling his shoulders, “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

“Sure, sure,” the man continued to chuckle along with the crowd. “You got the money to play, kid? It a house rule, just like most of these places. If you wanna play, you’re going to have to pay.”

“Hang on,” the boy said, padding himself down before pulling out a roll of money from one of the pockets in his shorts. “Is this enough?”

“You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” the fight announcer questioned, looking surprised along with the rest of the audience as the laughter died down. “I certainly like your spirit, kid. But this ain’t no playground. Better go home, and come back another time when there’s a fighter more at your level-”

“Hold on,” Akiza interjected, holding her arm out in front of him as she looked the boy up and down, eyeing the robot in his hand.

“Akiza, you’re not seriously considering …?” the announcer began before a glare from Akiza cut him off.

“What’s your name, kid?” she asked the teenager, her gaze turning to look back down at him.

“Hiro,” the boy answered “Hiro Hamada.”

“You got guts, Hiro. I like that,” Akiza said, giving him a respectful smile. “Here’s how we do things here. You pay up, you get your match. One round, no time limit. It’s over when either fighter gives in, or one bot can no longer continue to battle. Once it’s over, it’s over. No rematch right after, no changing bots, no disputing the decision unless you have a legitimate complaint. If you want a rematch, you come back another night. You got it?”

“One round to the end, pay to play, no rematch until another night,” Hiro summarised, listing them off on his hand. “Got it. Anything else?”

Akiza glances back over her shoulder at the disbelieving ring announcer, raising her visible eyebrow at him. He looked from Akiza to Hiro, the teenager looking questioningly back at him.

“N-No, that should cover it,” the ring announcer stammered.

“Good. Looks like you’re on, kid,” Akiza responded, looking back down at her opponent with a smile. “Don’t expect me to go easy on you.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he replied as they both made their way to their respective areas.

Hiro set his bot down on the arena floor, the smiling bot standing upright initially before slumping down into a hunched seated state. Akiza spun around as she dropped into a cross-legged position, while Hiro just slid crossed his legs over and slid his feet apart, falling into the same seated position. The female bot fighter stretched her arms out in front of her, interweaving her fingers and cracking them as she stretched them out. Hiro mimicked her movements, though he made an artificial cracking noise himself. The fight announcer walked over to each fighter, still in disbelief, as they both put a roll of roughly equal money in the metal box he offered them.

“W-Well then,” he stammered, looking into the metal box, “it appears we have a fight.”

The crowd roared their approval, everyone appearing to be supporting Akiza. Hiro looked around him, appearing to be intimidated slightly by the noise of the audience. The energy that the crowd erupted with elated the fight announcer, allowing him to regain his smile, swagger and cool composure. He cleared his throat and continued.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t need to go over the rules with you again. You all know what’s about to happen. Akiza Matsumoto defends her undefeated streak against newcomer Hiro Hamada!”

The crowd cheer and shout, hyped for the battle to begin. Akiza rolls her shoulders and looks across at her opponent.

“Good luck, kid,” she said, her expression showing her determined and ready to get brawling.

“You too,” he replied with a smile.

“Two bots have entered our arena,” the ring announcer continued, circling the bots in the fight zone. “Only one will leave victorious, the other will be destroyed. We’re only seconds away. Will Akiza add one more to her sixty-four consecutive wins, or will Hiro be able to somehow make an unbelievable upset?”

The crowd begin to chant “Akiza! Akiza!” in rhythm, the bot fighter raising her fist in the yeah to the cheers of her supporters.

“You know what happens now. I say the three, you all say the two and the one,” the fight announcer instructed, holding three fingers up to the crowd. “Akiza, are you ready?”

“Ready!” she shouts, picking up her controller.

“Hiro, are you ready?”

Hiro nods at the announcer, picking up his smaller controller and holding it between his hands.

“On three, everyone. Three!”

“Two!” everyone in the crowd shouts out, counting down as the announcer holds up two fingers to everyone. “One!”

“Fight!” the ring announcer shouts along with the crowd.

Hiro’s bot staggers to its feet and bumbles forwards, holding its arms out as if it’s going to hug the opposing bot. Akiza appeared to suppress a giggle under her hand at the adorable sight of Hiro’s teetering charge before making her bot slash twice in front of it and moves forwards, leading with its left claw. When the two bots got close to one another, Akiza’s bot leant down and slashed upwards with its right claw, lifting the black bot into the air, before slashing through the ball joints of the robot, scattering the three identically shaped pieces as they hit the ground. The crowd cheers loudly and Akiza lifts her arms into the air triumphantly, looking to them all.

“The winner, by complete destruction …!” the fight announcer shouts out, walking over to Akiza and holding out the winnings to Akiza.

“What are you talking about?” Hiro asks, making them both turn to him. “My bot can still fight.”

Everyone looks down at the arena, expecting to just see the three pieces of Hiro’s robot lying uselessly on the floor. To their immense surprise, they see his bot standing in front of the boy completely intact, as if Akiza’s Slasher hadn’t just sliced through it.

“See?” Hiro inquired, his bot turning to the two of them and bowing. “It’s still operational.”

“Wha- But h-how?!” the fight announcer stammers, the crowd murmuring amongst each other in shock. “I saw it get sliced apart! We told you, kid. No swapping bots.”

“I didn’t swap him out,” Hiro defended. “You can even check me if you don’t believe me. I don’t have any other bots on me.”

“It’s fine,” Akiza interjected before the announcer could argue anymore. “I’ll just make sure it’s dead this time.”

Her bot charges towards Hiro’s, once again lifting it into the air with an upwards slash before again slicing between the magnetic ball joints, the three pieces falling lifelessly to the ground and scattering across the arena. The crowd cheer once again, thinking the match to be finished. However, Akiza watches the pieces of his bot intently, determined to make sure it was no longer operational. Just as the fight announcer was about to award the fight to Akiza once again, the three pieces whir to life to the surprise of everyone. The spheres of each piece spin round and round before coming together in front of Hiro, hopping back on top of one another and reforming back into the complete robot just like before.

“Well, if that doesn’t work, I’ll just slice down through everything!” Akiza growled, moving her Slasher bot forwards.

“I don’t think so,” Hiro quipped at her, looking at her with fiery eyes. “Megabot, destroy!”

“Destroy?!” the ring announcer repeats in confusion as Hiro pulls on his controller, expanding the small device into a much larger one, before jumping back as the face of Hiro’s bot changed from the yellow, smiling, harmless face to a red, wild, bloodthirsty expression.

With the middle section of the bot spinning around wildly, Hiro’s Megabot ran forwards quickly. As the Slasher clawed at Hiro’s bot, leading its attack to strike where Akiza calculated the bot would be, Hiro’s bot flipped out of the way, jumping over Akiza’s robot. The Slasher repeatedly hacked and slashed at the Megabot which, thanks to its smaller size, was able to deftly dodge and avoid each and every attack.

“Finally, I get a good opponent,” Akiza remarked with a grin, while the fight announcer and some of the audience just stare dumbfounded at both Hiro and his robot. “Haven’t had one in a while.”

“Glad I can step up to the plate,” Hiro replied, watching his bot get caught by a rare strike and knocked to the ground before commanding it to separate as Akiza brought her bot’s claws down in a stabbing motion, the strike missing and embedding the claws into the concrete below. With a great amount of strength, the Slasher pulls its claws free before splitting them up into the six blades, scuttling after the three segments of Hiro’s robot and stabbing and slashing at the three pieces as they roll out of the way of each and every attack.

The crowd seems to get increasingly pumped and hyped up for the fight now, noticing that it was never going to be the joke that they originally thought and being pulled into the intensity and energy of the battle before them. They begin to cheer and shout along, many of them swapping from supporting Akiza to rooting for Hiro and for what they deemed to be an upset. Many bets seemed to be taken place within the crowd as everyone clamoured in to get their piece of the action, the odds on Hiro winning drastically being shortened.

Starting to look a little worried after a few moments from having someone so effectively play the avoiding, teasing style she employs when she usually brings out the six blades, Akiza chooses to switch her strategy from embedding and destroying all of the pieces of the Megabot at once to targeting one of the pieces at a time. Selecting to target the head of the bot, Akiza’s Slasher began to stab down around the segment, trying to pierce the polygonal arms attached to the sphere. The segment spun out of the way, rotating on the spot and making the blades miss the mark, instead pinning into the ground. However, with each blade missing, the more its movement was restricted, with Akiza instead opting to pin in the segment so it couldn’t spin away. With four blades stuck into the ground around it, the head piece was pinned into place while not having been pierced, unable to get away.

“Gotcha!” Akiza cried out in triumph, bringing one of the remaining blades up and poised, ready to strike down on the trapped section of Hiro’s Megabot.

Just as the blade came down, the remaining two sections of the Megabot slung each other over to the Slasher and wrapped around the joint for its left leg. They squeezed tightly and popped the leg out if its socket, causing the Slasher to lose balance slightly and throw off its aim, the stab of the blade just missing the head piece and piercing the concrete just like the other four blades pinned down. With a growl of annoyance, Akiza commands the last blade to slash at the two free pieces, which move out of the way and cause her to slice through one of the arms pinned into the ground, the limb falling away from the Slasher and landing on the ground. The two free pieces, working in tandem, pick up the fallen blade and together use it to slash through the arms holding the third segment in place. Two more arms are cut lose from the body, allowing the head section to spin away from its bladed prison and rejoin the two pieces that freed it.

“No!” Akiza shouted out as her bot repositioned itself to regain balance, the bot leaning heavily to the left and using the last remaining left limb to hold itself up. The two right arms that hadn’t been sliced away started to lash out at the rolling pieces of Hiro’s Megabot, the teenage boy going back to dodging the attacks sent his way as he pondered what to do next.

When a segment circled around the wounded Slasher, it pushed off with the left blade and stood upright for a couple of seconds, rotating around with the ball joint at the mid-region like it did against the Viking bot and then incorporating a semi-slashing vortex, narrowly missing the pieces before stopping as its balance failed again. This time, it leant down on the right side, the torso having spun to an inversed position, and leant on one of the two limbs on that side, using the remaining two to attack again.

After a few more cycles of this stage of the battle, Hiro’s pieces worked together once again, one piece working as a lever while the other two extended from it clutching one of the disarmed blades. In a large, sweeping motion using the blade, the three segments brought a downwards slice towards the stranded, wounded Slasher, looking to finish the fight. Reacting quickly, Akiza brought her bot into a roll, avoiding the vertical slash before lashing out with one of its limbs as it got back to its foot. The tactic catching Hiro by surprise, the teenage boy moved quickly to separate the pieces again, the desperate strike from Akiza just barely missing its target.

‘ _Impressive,’_ Hiro remarked to himself as the battle continued, ‘ _I wasn’t expecting it to be so effective in its defence having taken so much damage. No wonder Akiza’s been on such a streak.’_

Back to leaning on its right side, using the lower arm to balance itself, the Slasher strikes downwards at one of the sections. As usual, the attack misses, piercing into the ground. As the Slasher rights itself, the three segments of the Megabot roll in from different directions and latch onto the supporting limb, squeezing at the joint and popping it out of the socket just like what had happened with the leg before. The Slasher throws both of its arms out in front of it to hold it up, catching itself mid-fall. Using the opportunity, the three sections of Hiro’s bot scale up the three remaining limbs; the two arms and one leg, and climb to the head, reforming into the single complete bot.

Jumping on its back, the Megabot starts punching the Slasher in the back of the head, first slowly before increasing the speed rapidly, before separating quickly and coiling around the head. It constricts tightly around the head, the red face staring directly at Akiza before the head of her bot pops off from the overwhelming pressure, the wires connecting that had been connected to the head sparking a little as they stick out from the body before dying. The Megabot springs up from the body as it crashes lifelessly to the ground, reforming in mid-air and landing in its complete form, standing up and switching its face back to the yellow, smiling one as it bows to Akiza. The female bot fighter just stares at the wreckage of her robot, both surprising and disbelieving.

“The w-winner … by complete destruction!” the ring announcer cries out, looking at a loss for words himself. “Hiro Hamada!”

The crowd erupts into a euphoric state at the announcement, shocked at the fall of Akiza’s undefeated streak and at the magnificence of the battle they had witnessed. The boy that they all had seemed to doubt, except for maybe Akiza herself, had effectively deceived each and every one of them to not only defeat Akiza, but thoroughly dominate the match with his multi-pieced Megabot. Lots of money was exchanged between those who had placed bets on the fight, the odds that were placed on Hiro winning making some people much wealthier than they were previously.

The ring announcer walked over to Hiro and presented the winnings to him, which the teenage boy placed within his hoodie. His bot walked over to Hiro and the teenager picked it up, dusting it off slightly in his hands. Looking up, the young boy noticed Akiza walking slowly to the arena, crouching down and picking up the broken remains of her Slashing Nightmare. She seems to stare despondently at her bot before placing the pieces within a backpack which she had brought over.

“How am I meant to deal with something like that …?” she mutters to herself as Hiro walks over to her. Noticing him, she straightens herself and slides the backpack over her shoulder.

“Looks like you got the better of me,” Akiza said to him with a small smile, a little disappointed in herself. “I was a little disappointed at first when I sliced up your bot the first time because of your attitude in challenging me. But, you had a lot of surprises in that little bot of yours.”

“Thank you, Akiza,” he replied with a lopsided grin. “You caught me off guard with a few of your attacks as well. I really wasn’t expecting you to be able to defend so well despite losing a lot of your limbs.”

“But I still couldn’t win, could I?” she questioned, mostly to herself. She shook her head in the process, her blue hair swaying slightly with the movement. “It was a good fight.”

“It was, wasn’t it?” Hiro responded, holding out a hand to her. She took it and they shook hands, the members of the audience still watching applauding the two.

“I hope you let me have a rematch once I get my bot all patched up again,” Akiza declared as they finished their handshake, her hand moving to the strap of the backpack around her right shoulder.

“Uh … I don’t tend to do much bot fighting these days,” Hiro mentioned, rubbing the back of his neck. “But, if you can manage to track me down, I’m sure we could probably go another round.”

“Then that’s what I’ll do,” she replied before turning around and walking into the crowd, giving him a farewell wave before disappearing from sight.

“So, kid? You sticking around for more matches?” the fight announcer questioned as they watched her leave.

“Sorry,” Hiro apologised as he shook his head, “but I need to get going. No more fights for me tonight.”

The teenage boy took off from the centre of the arena, squeezing his way through the crowd before finally finding himself outside of the mass of people. Making sure he still had his winnings and his bot, he walked off into the alleyways with a smile, pleased with the progress he’d made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up in a week. By all means let me know what you think, constructive criticism is very welcome, and suggestions are welcome too. When I had started writing this, the series hadn't been started, so things from there might get added in too. 
> 
> Anyway, until next time, adios!


	2. Underground Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiro is rescued by a familiar face and finds out that the underground harbours far more dangers than he initially thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things start to slowly kick off this chapter as the pieces come together. Onwards!

“Still got it,” Hiro chuckled to himself as he looked down at his Megabot. He then looked up into the night sky, noticing a few stars twinkling above despite the light shining from the city.

“I’m sorry, big brother,” he sighed. “I know you wanted me to leave all this behind. But I needed to do this just for tonight. I know you’d understand if I told you why.”

The robotics prodigy took a right turn down into another corridor, a perpendicular alleyway running to both his left and his right, and stopped in his tracks as he saw three looming figures standing before him, hidden in the dark shadows cast by the buildings. Stepping forwards into view was a particularly tall, fat man, his receding black hair pulled back into a small ponytail, wearing a matching set of matte indigo pants and jacket, with three yellow lines going from the neck down each sleeve.

“Hello, _Zero_ ,” the man sneered, glaring at the boy with an evil smile.

“Hey, Yama …” Hiro replied anxiously, putting on a slightly nervous smile and taking a couple of hesitant steps backwards. “H-How’s it going?”

“You cost me a lot of money, little boy,” Yama stated while walking forwards slowly, his henchmen coming into the light as they forced Hiro to keep moving backwards.

“U-Uh … I’m sorry?”

“And, the way we see it, you owe us some of that money,” Yama continued, glancing at his two henchmen, identical twins of tanned skin, buzzed heads and beards, with one wearing purple cargo pants and a white singlet and the other in a blue and black t-shirt and black baggy trousers. “Especially for that little stunt you pulled the last time we fought. That bot’s sure to fetch a lot of cash.”

“Look, guys …” Hiro said nervously as the two henchmen advanced towards him, cracking their knuckles with a sinister smirk on their faces. “Guys! L-Let’s talk about this!”

Just as one of the twins reaches out a hand to grab him, a light appearing from the alleyway Hiro had walked down before shone on their faces, growing brighter and brighter very quickly as the light source sped closer. The sound of something cutting through the air at high speed whistles through the alleyway, the twins leaping out of the way and knocking Yama down with them. Skidding to a near sudden stop, a familiar looking yellow and grey streamline bike appeared before Hiro, the bike lifting up onto its front wheel and pivoting. Atop the seat of the bike was a person of womanly build, wearing ripped jeans with purple leggings underneath, small black shorts with orange lines going down both sides, a white shirt, a short sleeved and backed black leather jacket and fingerless gloves, while an aerodynamically shaped black helmet sat atop her head.

“Go Go?!” Hiro exclaimed in surprise, having jumped back as well to avoid being hit.

“Get on, Hiro,” said the rider in Go Go’s voice. When the young boy complied, she slammed a creamy white and sage green helmet on his head that seemed too large save for the mop of hair on his head, before speeding off in the opposite direction of Yama and his goons.

“Phew! That was some good timing, Go Go,” Hiro sighed, hanging tightly to Go Go’s waist as the speed they were riding at increased quickly. “Thank yo-”

The robotics prodigy was cut off by a flurry of light punches to his torso, thrown by Go Go’s right hand as she leant around.

“What the hell do you think you were doing, genius?!” she yelled at him, taking a sharp turn that nearly through the young boy she had just rescued off her bike, before hurtling across an empty street into another set of alleyways. “You sneak out, tell no one what you’re doing, and you end up getting in trouble! And for what?!”

“I-I … uh … I was j-just-”

“You know bot fighting is illegal!” she interjected, Hiro holding out a hand with his mouth wide open before drooping, slightly annoyed at the interruptions. “What would your aunt say if you had been hurt, or arrested?!”

“Hey, bot fighting is not illegal,” Hiro affirmed, pointing an index finger up in front of him as they sped across another street. “Betting on bot fighting, that – _that_ – is illegal.”

“And you’re telling me you weren’t betting?” the speedster questioned, looking over her shoulder at him.

“U-Uh … Go Go?” Hiro voiced as he noticed they were hurtling towards a brick wall. “Shouldn’t you be watching where we’re going?”

Without turning around to look at the wall, Go Go sharply turns into another alleyway, again nearly throwing Hiro off her bike. He clings onto her tightly, his arms wrapping around her waist while still clutching onto his robot.

“Do we have to go so fast?”

“Yes,” Go Go answered sharply. “I had to interrupt a field test just to get you and I’m going to finish this test, with or without you. Understand?”

Hiro just nods and continues to cling on as the two hurtle through small alleyways and along streets, the wind whipping the hood on Hiro’s jumper all over the place. After several minutes of them racing through the city, Go Go skids to a stop in another alleyway complex, nearly throwing Hiro off the bike in the process.

“Damn it, it’s still not fast enough!” the speedster growled as she took off her helmet, letting her raven black and violet highlighted hair expand out from the confines of the safety equipment.

“That could be because I was on there as well,” Hiro pointed out as he hopped off, shakily standing back on solid ground. “The added weight would-”

“I know what the extra weight does, genius,” she snapped at him. “It wasn’t reaching the speeds I need it to even when I wasn’t with you.”

“Oh,” the prodigy replied simply, walking over to the wall of an apartment complex and leaning up against it.

He watched her sigh in frustration as she hopped of the bike and, resting it against a nearby dumpster, checks both the magnetic suspensions and the wheels for any damage or obstructers, before the sound of cheering people nearby catches his attention. Looking up, Hiro notices an abnormal amount of light shining in the sky coming from what appeared to be on the other side of the building.

“What is it that I’m missing?” Go Go murmured to herself as she was crouched down by her bike, before straightening back up and turning to where she believed Hiro had walked off to. She stopped when she noticed he wasn’t where he had walked to, but then looked up when she heard the noise of clanking metal. What she found was Hiro halfway up the four story apartment building, walking up the metal ladder to get to the third level.

“Hiro, what are you doing?” the speedster questioned, placing her hands on her hips.

“I heard some cheering coming from the other side,” Hiro explained, stopping and looking down at her. “I think there’s some more bot fights going on.”

“No, Hiro. You are not taking part in any more fights tonight, or any other night.”

“I’m not going to fight, I’m just going to watch.”

“It’s late, genius. I need to get you home before your aunt really starts to worry.”

“Please, Go Go!” Hiro pleaded, looking at her with wide puppy eyes. “Just for a little bit?”

She stared up at him for a few seconds, a stoic, unmoving expression on her face, while she crossed both of her arms across her chest. But, struggling to continue staring at his wide eyes, she turned her head away from him, breaking eye contact.

“Fine,” she sighed, reaching into her jacket and grabbing a ball of bubblegum. “But only one fight. Got it?”

“One fight, got it,” Hiro replied with a grin, before making to sprint the rest of the way up.

“Hey, genius!”

The teenage boy caught himself with a hand on the rails and took a couple of steps back down, looking down at Go Go questioningly.

“You’re not going to help me get this up at least some of the way?” Go Go asked, gesturing to her mag-lev bike. “I don’t want it to get stolen.”

“Fine …” Hiro moaned, realising he should help her if he’s the reason they have to stay. “I’ll be down there in a second.”

Hiro placed his Megabot down on the second level floor and raced down, sliding down the stairs quickly. When he reached the bottom, Go Go had detached the wheels from her bike and were holding them out to him. Taking them as she blew a pink bubble in his face, Hiro climbed back up from the ground to the first level and set the wheels down. As he turned around and looked down, wanting to see what Go Go planned to do with the rest of the bike, he found her standing by the ladder with her bike in her hands, the rear end planted on the ground, and her helmet back on her head.

Working together, they managed to get the remainder of the bike up off the ground, Go Go lifting the bike up from the bottom and pushing it up as Hiro, remaining on the first floor, helped to pull it up. With the entirety of the bike up off the alley floor, the two of them began their climb up to the top of the building, Go Go leaving her helmet with the bike and Hiro retrieving his Megabot from where he left it. Once they reached the roof of the apartment complex, Hiro quickly ran to the edge of the building, Go Go following closely behind.

“What the …?” Hiro said as he was met with the reason he heard cheering, both of them not expecting the sight that beheld them.

Lit up brightly due to a multitude of lights, the area below was set up a little like an outdoor stadium, just without any walls. In the centre of the space surrounded by buildings was set up a makeshift fighting arena, eight poles planted into the ground and held into place with a bin on each pole and sandbags surrounding it, with chain mesh fencing linking the poles and creating a five foot tall near-cylindrical cage. Round padded bars covered the top of the cage, preventing people from cutting themselves on the sharp tops of the metal fencing. Makeshift stands stood all around, with many people sitting and standing on them or standing in the space between the stands and the arena cheering on the fights, with some peddlers walking amongst them selling food and drinks.

“It looks like an underground fight,” Go Go observed, sitting on the ledge with her legs dangling over the edge. “I’ve heard about these sorts of things happening at other cities, but never here.”

Down in the cage were three men, two fighters and a referee. The one who was obviously the referee was dressed in a black t-shirt and long denim jeans, with a short crew cut and a pair of sunglasses tucked into the open collar of his shirt. He wore plastic gloves on both hands and watched both fighters in front of him carefully.

One fighter appeared to them to be a little aged, the two university students judging him to look in his mid-twenties. He had long brown hair with what seemed like silver streaks, the hair done up into a long braid at the back of his head that fell near the base of his shoulder blades to keep it out of the way. He had some grizzled sideburns and a few little scraps and cuts along his face, mostly around his left eye. Being topless, they saw he bore more scars along the rest of his torso, while his slightly baggy black sports pants with white lines going down the stitching on the sides hid his legs, though they saw he wasn’t wearing any shoes or boots. His build was that of an athlete, not particularly shredded but his muscles did have definition; not bulging but noticeable. Both the palms of his hands, the wrists, some of the lower arms and his feet had been bandaged up with tape, the taping on his hands slightly stained red with blood, just like some of the arena floor. On his left shoulder, the male had what appeared to be a tribal tattoo, while on the right arm the tail and lower body of what seemed like a dragon, the head and upper body hidden by the tape, while a large black dragon wrapped around a cross staring out with amber eyes was inked onto his back. He had taken up a bit of a freestyle stance, leading with his right hand and bouncing on both feet.

His opponent, looking older again, seemed quite beat up and nothing like the younger foe. Blood poured from the nose of the second fighter, staining his beard and chest. He had a balding look and his eyes appeared vacant, flashing in and out of focus. Wearing no shirt just like his foe, the second fighter weighed a lot more, his rotund appearance showing as much. The blood from his face had trickled down some of his chest, but appeared to be smeared as if someone had tried to quickly wipe it away. His legs, dressed in big baggy black shorts, were quite shaky and wobbly, with what looked like a coat of arms inked onto his right calf. He wore very little tape, opting instead for more modern fighting gloves, but it certainly appeared that he was losing.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t think this fight will be going for too much longer!” a female voice amplified by a speaker announced from the crowd.

The large man took a wild clubbing sweep with his arm, large but extremely slow. The younger fighter ducked underneath, allowing his opponent to stumble in the follow through before catching him sharply and quickly with an uppercut to the jaw. The larger opponent flailed and staggered back, but kept his feet, lifting his arms up lazily in a weak guard. They advanced towards each other, both in a defensive stance but the younger looking much fresher and stronger. He threw a couple of stiff leg kicks with both feet that slapped into the meaty thighs of his opponent, which though sounding like it stung didn’t appear to faze the larger opponent. Another wild swing was thrown, which the slimmer fighter avoided yet again, before a couple of quick jabs to the body. When the younger fighter threw a pretty big punch with his right hand, the older fighter managed to block it by bringing both arms up in front of his face. The large man seemed to bumble forwards but was caught by a quick spin kick with the left foot, striking him painfully in the lower torso.

“Ooh! That hurt him badly,” Hiro commented, wincing as the older fighter clutched his gut with both hand before the younger fighter crouched down and with an explosive burst of power, lifted the heavier man up off the ground and slammed him on the ground.

With the large man on the ground, the younger fighter lay on top and rained hammer fists down on his opponent who struggled to defend against them, even with holding his hands and arms up over his face. He rolled over to try to escape, which the younger fighter allowed him to do and maneuvered to stay on top. But when he went to push himself up, the younger fighter snaked his right arm underneath the opening beneath the chin and hooked in a rear naked choke, applying a large amount of pressure to the bigger man. His hands went to his neck to try and prise the squeezing arms away, breaking the choke hold, but he could not seem to be able to overpower the younger fighter who tightened his squeezes whenever he sensed the larger man exhale.

Unable to take the pain and feeling extremely woozy, the bigger fighter started tapping lightly on the arm of his opponent as he faded away, slouching to the cold hard ground. Seeing the submission, the referee took hold of the winner and told him it was over, which the younger fighter complied and released the submission hold. Air rushed back into the body of the defeated fighter as the referee stood over him, checking to make sure that no serious damage had been caused. The crowd roared for the result as the winning fighter walked over to his side of the cage, one of the two straighter edges of the cage positioned opposite to each other. As he reached his side, he held a hand up into the air, to which a peddler complied by tossing a bottle of water his way. Catching it, the victor unscrewed it and took a sip, swishing it around in his mouth before spitting it out. He took another mouthful before pouring some of the contents over his head, the water running through his hair and down his body. He ran a bloodied hand through his hair and, screwing the top back on to the bottle, set it on the railing of the cage before walking back over to the referee. The other side of the cage was opened up by a couple of people and a woman walked into the arena with a microphone in hand, her golden hair curled down her shoulders.

“The winner, by submission to the rear naked choke, Jason Thompson!” the woman, her voice revealing her to be the person who commented during the fight, announced, the crowd cheering as the referee lifted the hand of the winner.

The victor lowered his hand and walked over to his opponent, helping him back up and shaking his hand before both made their way back to their side of the cage. Whereas the loser walked out of the cage, the winner stayed in, taking another drink from the bottle of water that had been taken from him.

“Is there anyone else that wants to fight our mysterious newcomer?!” the announcer questioned, looking into the crowd.

“I’ll take him on,” a gruff voice announced, the source for which arrived shortly at the open fence of the cage.

The man stood at roughly even height with the man he was challenging, their height above the railing putting them both at around six foot tall. He took of his white singlet, showing off his solid tanned skin underneath that was covered in tattoos and thick scars. Leaving his navy sweat pants, bandanna and necklaces on, the guy strode into the ring, getting up into the face of Jason.

“You ain’t got no striking power,” he jibed, spitting next to the young fighter’s feet. “You’ve had to make the last three guys tap, plus you got a lucky hit to take out the first guy. You want to impress? Then knock me out!”

After his taunt, he stepped back and held his arms out wide mouthing “Bring it on” to Jason. The young man rolled his shoulders and, when he caught the questioning look of the announcer, gave her a nod.

“Looks like the challenge has been accepted,” the woman announced with a smile, the crowd voicing their approval.

The challenger let out a pumped up yell and ran off to the opposite side of the cage, taking off his necklaces and handing them to another person, an associate, in the crowd, before jumping back into the cage. Jason just fixed him with a stern look and paced up and down his side of the cage, occasionally lifting up an arm and rolling his shoulder back and forth. When the challenger returned to the ring and the announcer walked out, the cage was closed, sealing the competitors and the ref inside.

“Maybe we should get going,” Go Go suggested, looking at Hiro as they watch the preparations take place.

“Can we watch this next one?” Hiro questioned. “I’ve never really seen much in the way of competitive fighting like this.”

“That might be because, unless you’re competing in a tournament or with an association, it’s illegal,” Go Go pointed out, popping another bubble with her gum.

“How about this? If we look at how each person fights, then it might help in upgrading Baymax’s combat skills,” Hiro voiced, causing Go Go to give him a deadpan look and raise an eyebrow his way. “I’m serious. Wouldn’t it be good for him to know multiple fighting styles?”

“I guess …”

“So, we can stay?”

“Fine,” she sighed, giving into him again. “But only because I’m a little curious too. After this, we leave. No trying to persuade me otherwise. Understand?”

“Okay, okay,” Hiro chuckled, raising his hands in a mock surrender as she points a stern finger at him. “I get it.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last melee fight of the evening,” the woman from before announced, causing the university students to turn their attentions beck down to the arena.

“Melee fight?” Hiro repeated, thinking aloud. “Does that mean they have more fights?”

“Hiro!” Go Go said sharply, glaring at him.

“I know, I know. We aren’t sticking around if there is,” Hiro replied, looking at bit fearful at her fiery eyes. “I was just curious about why she’d phrase it like that, honest.”

“Introducing the fighter to my left,” the woman continued, silencing the two friends and again returning their attentions to the fight. “He is a regular at these sorts of events. With a known record of nine wins, three losses. Fighting out of San Fransokyo, Kantofornia!”

The crowd cheers loudly at the mention of their city, the corresponding fighter nodding his head smugly and motioning for them to cheer louder.

“Tanner ‘ _The Bone Breaker’_ Nishimura!”

The crowd cheer and clap as Tanner lets out a confident yell, raising his arms above his head and pandering to the spectators.

“He seems way too cocky,” Hiro observed.

“And to my right, a man of mystery, a new fighter to our esteemed arena. On his first night so far he has racked up four wins; three submissions and one TKO, and no losses, with what can only be described as considerable ease. From whence he came, we do not know. Ladies and gentlemen I give you … Jason Thompson!”

The crowd cheer him a little louder than they did Tanner, clearly impressed with his previous fights. He responds by shaking his arms and throwing a basic shadow combo in front of him, his still bloodied hands moving quickly through the air. The ref signals for the fight to commence and the combatants advance, Tanner taking up a standard boxing guard and Jason adopting for a low hand guard, bouncing a bit more on his feet than Tanner who presses more forwards and open.

“So, who do you think’s going to win?” Hiro asked Go Go, looking towards the adrenaline junkie.

“I think Jason will,” Go Go answered after a few seconds, watching the two circle each other in the cage. “The other guy just seems arrogant, like you said. Jason seems more relaxed and more serious about the fight.”

“Maybe he has something to prove,” Hiro suggested.

Tanner is the first to attack, trying to throw a two-punch combo leading with a left jab, though Jason quickly darts to avoid both strikes. Tanner tries the same combo which is avoided again quite easily, along with the next few jabs and combos.

“Come on, kid,” Tanner says with a smirk, though seemingly a little agitated with not having landed a blow yet. “You can’t win a fight by just dodging. Not with me, anyway.”

Tanner advances again and throws a big right hand which is sidestepped by Jason, who then lightly steps back to avoid the following jab with the left hand. Tanner then follows up with a sloppy but strong uppercut, letting his irritation get the better of him and making him lash out in one strike. Reacting quickly, Jason spins through; stepping around the uppercut and delivering a strong spinning side kick to the chest of the trash talking fighter. The force of the kick, despite being in close proximity, carries enough to knock Tanner down on his back. While Tanner quickly scurries back to his feet, Jason rolls forwards due to how he adapted to implement the side kick, getting up and returning to his guard.

“That’s what you get when you ask someone to fight back,” the female announcer says into the microphone, her tone of voice giving away the smile on her face. The crowd laugh along with her, which just seems to agitate Tanner even more.

As he makes to advance again, Jason surprises him by quickly skipping forwards and throwing some punches, causing the cocky fighter to desperately bring up his guard. Despite having his defence up, Jason’s surprise attack allows him to connect with five blows, including a couple of jabs to the face and a stinging left hook that crashes into the shoulder, before he backs off. The crowd seem to be completely supporting Jason now; the audience having chosen their favourite save for the few that had accompanied Tanner to the fight. Seething and struggling to contain it, Tanner sits back for a bit, letting Jason tag him with a couple of leg kicks that strike heavily against his thigh as he tries to get a feel for Jason’s style.

When he makes to advance again, Jason unleashes a wild roundhouse aiming for Tanner’s head. Realising this, Tanner desperately pulls his head down, just avoiding the kick that was going to take his head off. In the process though, Jason’s follow through in the spin lets him deliver a powerful back kick, strengthened by the momentum of the rotation, the strike breaking through Tanner’s guard and slamming into his sternum. Tanner falls backwards to the ground with a growl, clutching at his sternum as the crowd lets out a loud cheer. Jason paces back and forth, shaking his arms and legs out as he waits for Tanner to get to his feet, the former calmly looking into the murderous eyes of the latter.

Rubbing his chest, the pain still lingering greatly, Tanner gets back up and throws an uncontrolled combo. The initial right punch is leant around by Jason, making the pre-determined left cross punch miss as well before countering with a stiff right uppercut. The counter makes the third swing from Tanner miss, before an explosive left hook from Jason to counter again slams into his jaw, dropping Tanner to the ground on his face unmoving. As soon as Tanner’s body hits the ground, Jason just walks off to his side of the cage, shaking his head at his defeated opponent in the process. The ref rushes over to Tanner as the crowd erupts at the victory, thoroughly enjoying the young fighter take down his arrogant challenger.

“So much for not having any striking power,” Hiro laughed, looking at Go Go who looked back at him with an amused smirk, clearly pleased with the result.

The crowd chant “Walk off knockout! Walk off knockout!” over and over again as the cage opens, letting in the ring announcer and the companions of the fallen fighter, the latter group running over to their mate and checking on his condition with the ref. As they frantically sit him up, Tanner’s eyes are clearly vacant, blackening in the process as he struggles to place his surroundings.

“Your winner, by knockout, Jason Thompson!” the woman announced, the crowd applauding loudly as the victor raises up a hand to the crowd. His side of the cage is opened up and he walks out, taking his bottle of water with him.

The people in attendance around the cage part as he walks through, a few patting him on the back or the shoulders as he makes his way towards one of the stands. Hiro and Go Go watched as he stopped beside one of the makeshift scaffolding stands below them and grabs a white towel hanging off one of the bars, wiping the sweat and water from his face and shoulders before moving next to a nearby bin, removing the bloodied tape on his hands, arms and feet, and discarding them into the disposal unit along with the now empty bottle after taking one last mouthful. He then walked back over to the scaffolding and seemed to rummage through a worn khaki knapsack that had been hidden away under the stands.

“Okay, now that our brawling battles are over with, it’s time to move onto the arena battles!” the woman announced, the crowd cheering loudly as a man entered the cage in what seemed to be casual gear, but also having a metal trash can lid over his left arm like a shield and wielding a short metal pipe similarly to a mace.

“So they do have fights with weapons as well,” Hiro observed, rapidly hitting his knees in excitement. “I knew it!”

“Come on, Hiro,” Go Go cut in, sliding around and getting to her feet. “A deal’s a deal. We need to get going.”

“Okay,” Hiro sighed, taking his Megabot in his hands and standing up, Go Go already making her way to the stairs they used to get up. “I would have been interested to see it, though …”

The two begin to make their way down the stairs, Go Go having stopped and waited to make sure that the young robotics prodigy was actually following her. Together, they climbed down to the first level grating where Go Go’s bike framework was resting, deciding that it would be easier to get that down and then the wheels. As they brainstorm what process would allow them to easily get the bike lowered to the ground, an ear-splitting shriek erupts from the direction of the arena. Looking at each other in surprise, the two race back up to see what was causing all the commotion.

When they arrived at the ledge, they both stopped short with shocked expressions at the sight before them. Inside the cage, the man that they had seen entering the cage was struggling to defend himself as three men, all beefy and grim looking, wailed on him with their weapons; two short metal poles, one long steel pole, and a barb wired baseball bat with a trash can shield. The defenceless man, his makeshift weapon and shield having been knocked from him, was raising his beaten and bruised arms over as much of his face and body as he could, his skin growing red from the strikes and from gashes and cuts opening up in his skin, letting some blood out, and blackening as the unopened wounds quickly bruise up. The man cries out loudly in pain, pleading unsuccessfully for the thugs to stop, while the crowd watch on flabbergasted and frozen in fear, unable or unwilling to step forwards to defend the unarmed fighter. Occasionally the referee would try to intervene, but he would be roughly thrown aside by one or two of them before they resumed their beating.

“Please! Please, someone!” the announcer pleaded into the microphone, her voice sounding as if it was breaking with sobs. “Someone, please help him! Go get help!”

“We have to do something, now!” Hiro stressed quickly, looking at Go Go.

“We can’t just run in like this,” Go Go responded, looking really worried at the situation before them.

“Well, what else are we supposed to do?!” Hiro shouted back, panicking.

“Think, genius. If we ran in without our suits, without back up, without letting the others know, what do you think will happen?”

“We can’t just leave him in there-!”

The man’s heightened cries and shrieks cut them both out of their arguing and brought their attention painfully back to the beating and torturing in the cage. Blood flowed out readily from the gashes and cuts in his skin, while his clothes lay torn and shredded from the sharp barbs on the wire wrapped around the baseball bat. Suddenly, someone ran forth from the crowd, leaping over the railing and cage meshing similarly to how a high jumper would leap over a bar. The person, soon recognised as the young fighter Jason from before, now wearing a white shirt patterned with a chain of skulls and two swords embedded within each pair, rolled through on his landing and lashing out with his left foot. His foot, swung round in a high roundhouse kick, crashed into the face of the man wielding the two metal poles, dropping him to the ground before picking up the discarded pole from the beaten, defenceless man and slashing upwards at the next foe, the weapon smashing into the trash can lid shield of the baseball bat wielder. The shield bearer staggered backwards from the blow, having had to quickly raise his shield to block the surprise attack, while his friend who had been kicked in the side of the head clutched at the impact zone, spitting on the arena floor with some blood coming out. Jason stood over the fallen man, twirling the metal bar in his right hand and leading with his left hand, glaring angrily at the three men. Using Jason as a distraction and a barrier between the three thugs and the injured man on the ground, a few others choose to quickly open the cage fence and move him out of the cage. Whenever one of the thugs would try to force their way past Jason would make to move and strike at them, the knowledge of what he’d already done earlier that night making them back away each time.

“Okay … how about we help him out instead?” Hiro suggested.

“We’d still need to contact the others,” Go Go pointed out.

As they manage to carefully haul the beaten man away for treatment, another man enters from the other side of the cage, striding in quite casually and calmly considering the atmosphere. Wearing a black leather biker’s jacket, an opened burgundy buttoned shirt and faded denim jeans, the man swings a heavy chain round in his hands before wrapping it around his fist and running a hand through his oil-slickened dirty blonde hair.

“You should know better than to interfere in the business of others,” he says, looking over at Jason as he pulls the cage shut behind him.

“I take it you’re the leader?” Jason observed, speaking evenly and composed, coming across as quite intimidating.

A loud crash came out from one of the alleyways behind Jason. As everyone turned around to find the source of the commotion, a shadowy figure hidden out of the light appeared to kick down one of the trash cans, sending the bin tumbling towards the arena. A few people jumped out of the way as rubbish and makeshift weapons were flung from the disposal unit. Flicking up a long steel bar with their feet into their hands, the loud gate-crasher walked out of the shadows into the illuminated zone.

The figure was dressed in dark garbs, a long black cloak and hood draped over their back and head, nothing of the mysterious newcomer could really give anyone any indications of their identity. The left sleeve of the cloak was covered in jet black spikes curled upwards and back, spikes also covering the shoulders but curving out from the middle. The right arm was not confined within the corresponding sleeve of the cloak, the fabric instead trailing behind with the cape floating behind him. The right arm instead was covered in segments of demonic looking armour, the coverings jagged and ghoulish like the scales and skin of a fiend. The plates covering the torso carried a similarly grim appearance, what seemed like wailing spirits and tortured souls dug into the armour and gave off a frightening aura. The upper legs were covered in an unknown fabric, though a couple of tattered strands and wrappings appeared to dangle off of it, before more armour covered the lower half of their legs and feet, the coverings for their knees looking razor sharp in the harsh bright lights. The face was completely shrouded by the hood of the cloak, leaving no one with the ability to see any features of the dreaded man. Everyone in the stands and standing before the arena shrank back at their forbidding arrival, the sight of the figure sending eerie shivers down the spines of Hiro and GoGo. Fearful voices and murmurs came from a few people in the crowd, while the thugs in the ring appeared apprehensive at the prospect of what this new person could possibly want. Their leader seemed scared stiff, breathing short and sharp but unable to do anything else, while Jason seemed the strongest of heart yet still he appeared to recognise the danger this person presented.

“Everyone! Get out of here!” Jason yelled out, making a few people jump in surprise. “You need to get running and don’t look back! GO!”

With that everyone began to flee from the arena, shoving each other aside and bustling out any which way they could. The thugs remained in the cage as Jason quickly headed over to the group that were helping the beaten down man, assisting them in getting the injured fighter out of the vicinity. When they were safely making their way down one of the alleyways, carrying the injured man between them, Jason stopped and looked stoically at the hooded figure who appeared to look back at him, before collecting his knapsack and a jacket and running off.

“Hiro!” Go Go shouted as she shook his shoulder, the boy staring at the gate crasher as he menacingly approached the cage and the thugs inside frozen in fear. “Hiro! We need to get out of here!”

“R-Right … yeah … Let’s go,” Hiro stammered, allowing himself to be pulled across the rooftop before running himself down the stairs.

They manage to flee down to the first level, hastily getting Go Go’s mag-lev bike parts down to the ground and assembling the bike together before a loud painful scream sounds out from the direction of the arena. The two SFIT students jump and glance nervously in that direction before quickly putting on their helmets and hopping on the bike, Go Go obviously sitting in front on the pedals and Hiro behind holding onto her. The noise of a bone breaking and another couple of agonising screams falls on their ears before Go Go starts to pedal off, neither one wanting to stick around and possibly run into that dangerous looking individual. Suddenly appearing at the end of the alleyway that the two were approaching from, sirens blared as red and blue flashing lights reflected off the brick walls, signifying the approaching police cars.

“Oh no …” Go Go said as she skidded to a stop and turned around, cycling off in the opposite direction as a couple of police cars pulled up at the alleyway.

“We need to get out before they close off every exit way” Go Go thought out loud as they zipped through the alleyway maze, occasionally finding an exit before the flashing lights of the police illuminated the building walls and sealed off that escape route.

After a few failed attempts at finding a route to leave from, they finally manage to find one that had yet to be blocked off. The two race across the street, leaving the arena alleyways behind them and entering another short alleyway, which Go Go knew would lead them to a busier part of downtown San Fransokyo, hopefully meaning that they wouldn’t then be caught. Taking a couple of turns, they began travelling along the last alleyway before two figures shot out from an intersecting, Go Go braking hard and skidding to a stop when she noticed which two they were.

The hooded gate crasher from before, now carrying a weapon on their back that couldn’t be seen clearly in the dim light, held the formerly slimy, smarmy thug leader by the scruff of his shirt and slammed him up against the brick wall of a building. The terrified leader shook and shivered, his mouth open as if to yell and scream, except his voice was not forthcoming. The two university students watched on petrified, stiffened in fear of what could happen not only to the thug leader but also to them if they were noticed.

“Where is he?” the nightmarish stranger questioned coldly and evenly, the voice identifying him as a male and carrying a deep tone and a gruff growl, but giving away nothing more.

“W-Wha … W-What?” the thug managed to sputter out hoarsely, his frightened voice threatening to fail him once again as it struggled to vocalise words.

As quick as lightning, the shrouded stranger spun around and hurled the thug into a nearby dumpster, the metal denting badly as the thug crashed into it with a painful groan before slumping to the ground. As he crashed into the disposal unit, Hiro took a sharp intake of air and gripped onto the waist of his friend tightly while Go Go quickly rose her hands to cover her mouth, muffling the short squeal that she otherwise would have let out from watching the impact. The thug leader struggled to push himself up off the ground, before being lifted up by the nightmarish figure again and thrown into the wall once more, pinned up off the ground by the arms of the hooded figure. Reaching behind him, the cloaked individual pulled the weapon off his back and held it in between both of them.

“N-No … N-No! P-P-Please!” the thug leader pleaded as the concealed figure raised the weapon up and round, ready to strike in a sweeping backhand motion.

Go Go and Hiro both flinched and turned away as the weapon swung round, closing their eyes tightly as they feared what seemed to be inevitable. But instead of the impending sounds of the murder that they were expecting, the sound of metal piercing and embedding stone sounded out, though the screams and yells of the thug still rang out. When they hesitantly stole a peek at the scene before them, they saw that the weapon, now identifiable as a scythe, had been lodged into the wall, the metal blade piercing the brick wall and the handle locked in just under the chin of the thug leader, pressed up against his neck enough to make him struggle to try and get it off but not enough to suffocate him. As he raised his hands to struggle with the scythe, clutching the handle tightly as he frantically tried to push it away from him, the hooded man removed his hold from the thug leader leaving him hanging only by the stiffness of the scythe and the strength in his arms. The two university students let out a sigh of relief they didn’t know they were holding in, but still watched on in terror.

“You know what I’m after,” the spine-chilling man averred, his stoic calmness unnerving to no end. “You know who I want. Where is he?”

“I-I … I-I d-don’t know!” the thug cried out hoarsely, looking fearfully into the darkness cast by the hood. “H-He rarely sh-shows himself to us, o-or contacts us himself! I-It’s always s-some m-middle man!”

The hooded individual took a couple of quiet ghostly steps forwards, the thug quickening his attempts to try and escape but fumbling many times against the rigid handle.

“I-I s-swear! I-I’m telling you th-the truth! I don’t know where he is!”

“I believe you,” the unearthly man replied, gripping onto the handle of the scythe. Pulling it out he pivoted the scythe outwards, leaving the weapon embedded in the wall while letting the thug down. He clutches his neck with a hand and takes some large breathes of air, savouring his ability to breathe freely again while he could. As he struggled to get to his feet, the thug let out a cry and staggered backwards, tripping and falling to the ground again as he found the mysterious man right up in his face.

“But you’re still part of the organisation,” he continued, the growl he adds to his words sending more shivers coursing through Hiro and Go Go’s bodies, “which means you still have a price to pay.”

“W-What?!” the thug leader cried out as the man reached down to grab him again. “N-No! I-I told you everything I know!”

Ignoring the pleas of the frightened thug, the hooded man reached down and pulled him up off the ground, holding him up so his feet weren’t touching the ground. He then took him down and applied a choke hold on him, wrapping a thick spiked arm under his neck and squeezing down with the other. The thug leader flailed and struggled but was unable to escape, the lack of air getting to his body making him start to fade. Just before he finally passed out, the man flung the leader into the dumpster once again, crashing into the metal and falling unconscious.

Hiro and Go Go watch in horror as the man limply falls to the ground, unable to move his body, before turning to watch as the hooded man brought out some small device from within his cloak and began speaking, his voice this time too quiet for either of them to discern clearly. For a minute in which he did this they stood on Go Go’s bike unmoving, their minds clouded by fear and unable to comprehend what they had just witnessed and what they should be doing now. When he had finished, the man dropped the small device onto the limp body of the thug leader he had taken out, before grabbing his scythe and pulling it out of the wall.

“U-Uh … Go Go?” Hiro whispered, trying to get his friend’s attention.

Go Go seemed to be unable to here Hiro, much to his dismay. That trepidation grew alarmingly higher as the hooded man turned around and finally noticed their presence. He spun the scythe round in his hand a couple of times menacingly, a silent warning.

“Go Go?” Hiro tried again, his voice not seeming to get through to her in her petrified state. He quickly thought of everything he could that he believed could rouse her from her frozen predicament, sighing at his acceptance at what seemed to be the most likely to work.

“Go Go? Can we please get _go-go_ -ing now?”

“What did you say?!” she replied fiercely, the use of her name awakening an anger in her that was strong enough to snap her back to life.

Glaring at the boy who had, regretfully, used her name in such a way, his gesturing with his eyes brought her attention to the man once more who had started to walk towards them. Her face quickly changed once more from anger to fear as she placed her feet down, one on a pedal and the other on the ground to push off.

“Oh … yeah,” she said as she spun the bike around and started to pedal off, attempting to flee.

Just as they thought they had a chance to escape, the red and blue flashing lights rang over and around the buildings, coupled with the wailing sirens bouncing off the building walls, signified the police gathering in the direction that she was cycling towards. Screeching to a stop, Go Go glanced between the man and the flashing lights, trying to decide which the better option was. The man also noticed the sirens and turned around, running and jumping on top of the dumpster before leaping up the building walls and rolling over onto one of the roofs, fleeing the scene.

“We need to get going too!” Hiro yelled over the increasing wails of the sirens.

“Right,” Go Go replied, flicking the visor on her helmet down and shooting off in the direction that had been blocked by the presence of the menacing stranger. They both looked down at the limp thug with concern, their minds questioning whether that also could have been their fate if the hooded man hadn’t chosen to escape when the police began to arrive. A thought suddenly coming to Hiro, he quickly jumped off of the bike before they could leave the alleyway and quickly ran back to the body, Go Go braking and turning to face him.

“What are you doing?!”

“I just thought of something!” Hiro explained, reaching the body.

As he looked down, inspecting it, he found a small blue orb resting on top of the unconscious thug leader, appearing to be able to glow and light up but currently being dull and dark. Hiro snatched it up and pocketed it inside his jacket before sprinting back to Go Go, jumping back onto the back of her mag-lev bike.

“Okay, let’s go!” he said, Go Go obliging and pedalling off, the two taking a turn and leaving the alleyway just before the police arrived and could catch them at the crime scene.

“What the hell did you go back for?!” Go Go asked as they zipped along the streets of San Fransokyo, heading towards the Lucky Cat Café, Hiro’s home.

“I’ll show you when we stop,” Hiro answered, clutching tightly onto Go Go’s waist as they sped faster and faster, still not used to going at such high speeds darting around objects at such a close proximity. He may be used to the high speeds that he picks up when flying on Baymax, but then he normally is high in the sky and not having things hurtling past missing them by mere centimetres like what’s happening right now with Go Go.

* * *

It takes them several minutes before they finally pull up at the Lucky Cat Café, the speedster braking as they skidded past the yellow paint along the side wall of the lowest level. The waving white lucky cat looked down on them happily as they both got off the mag-lev bike, removing their helmets and letting their hair out. While Go Go’s came out more or less as normal, Hiro’s seemed to puff out and rise up a bit, the robotics prodigy having developed a slight case of helmet hair. The young boy made to walk inside but was quickly forced aside by the stronger woman, the adrenaline junkie pinning him up against the entrance way with a hand pushing down on his chest.

“Firstly, don’t you ever – _ever_ – use my name like that again,” she growled angrily, getting a fierce fire in her eyes.

“O-Okay,” Hiro stammered nervously, afraid of what she would do to her if he was to pull that tactic again. “I-It was only to wake you out of your frozen state, I swear.”

“Secondly,” she continued, “show me what you went back for.”

Hiro pulled out the small blue orb from his jacket, holding it out to her. She took it from him and held it between her fingers, raising it up to the street light.

“A recorder orb?” she questioned, inspecting the sphere before rolling it around in her hand. “You went back for this?”

“It was what that … that _person_ dropped,” Hiro explained as GoGo handed the recorder orb back to him. “You know, after-”

“I know … I know,” she replied, peering to the side with a look of worry that Hiro was especially unaccustomed to seeing her express.

They stood there in an awkward silence for a few seconds before the door to the café was pulled open from inside, Aunt Cass, wearing her usual black t-shirt and three-quarter denim jeans, running outside and hugging her nephew tightly.

“Are you okay, Hiro?” she asks, looking down on him.

“I’m fine, Aunt Cass,” Hiro replied, looking up at her through her hair.

“Oh good,” she sighs, backing out of the hug and running a hand through his hair, before grabbing his ear by the ear lobe. “Then what in the world were you thinking, you knucklehead?!”

She pulls her nephew into the café by his ear, much to his chagrin, voicing his pain all the way inside. Watching this unfold was an amused Go Go, leaning up against the door with her arms crossed over her chest and a small smile on her face before blowing a bubble with the gum still stuck in her mouth.

“What were you thinking running off on your own? And so late?” Cass chastised, not letting go of Hiro’s ear.

“I-It’s kinda hard to explain,” Hiro cringed, clenching his hands into fists to try and take away from the tugging vice-like pain coursing from his ear through the rest of his head.

“You nearly gave me a heart attack when I found you weren’t in your room,” his aunt continued, finally letting go of his ear and walking over to her pastry and desserts display, grabbing a donut covered in chocolate icing and taking a bite out of it. “Stress eating, because of you!”

“I’m sorry, Aunt Cass,” Hiro apologised, rubbing his ear as he looked down at the ground, genuinely feeling sorry for worrying his aunt so much.

“Oh, thank you so much for finding him, Go Go,” Cass said to the speedster, her voice muffled slightly due to her mouth being filled with donut. She went over and brought Go Go into a big hug, catching the adrenaline junkie off guard.

“U-Uh … y-you’re … you’re welcome,” Go Go replied embarrassingly, her voice flushing up a bit as she awkwardly patted Cass on the back.

Looking past Cass towards Hiro, Go Go found the young robotics prodigy struggling to contain his laughter at the sight of her discomfiture. Getting angry very quickly, she manoeuvred her way out of Cass’s embrace and stomped towards the teenage boy, rolling up the sleeves of her jacket and gritting her teeth. Noticing her coming towards him in an incensed fashion, Hiro quickly started to dart around the shop, trying to hide and evade from Go Go who continued to chase him.

“Oh, that reminds me. I need to call the others and let them know that you’re back home,” Cass said suddenly, walking over to the phone.

“Wait, the others were also looking for me?” Hiro asked in surprise as he frantically held off Go Go, separating him from her by holding one of the wooden chairs between the two of them, the speedster trying to reach over the chair to grab the young university student.

“Of course,” Cass replied, phone in hand. “I had Baymax call them. They were worried about you as well.”

“Aw, were you worried about me too, Go Go?” Hiro joked sweetly, instantly regretting his daring decision as he noticed it just enraged her more, the speedster finally throwing the chair between them away and leaving him virtually defenceless. “Okay, I’m sorry. Bad choice of words. Bad choice of words!”

“Go Go, would you mind making sure Hiro gets to his bedroom?” Aunt Cass asked after watching the adrenaline junkie tackle her nephew to the ground and punch him hard on the shoulder, making him cry out in pain.

“I don’t need to be babysat-” Hiro complained, grabbing his shoulder and wincing before Go Go lifted him back up to his feet and punched his other arm. “Ow!”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll make sure he won’t go anywhere else,” she replied, grabbing him by his hood and dragging him up the stairs to his room.

Once they had gone up the two flights of stairs to get to Hiro’s room, a little slower than it could have been due to Hiro more or less stumbling up the stairs due to the speedsters dragging, Go Go flung him inside and stood near the doorway, putting a new ball of bubblegum in her mouth to join the old one.

“Ouch. Did you have to be so rough?” Hiro questioned, getting himself off the floor.

At the sound of pain, a light tone beeping activated, the large red case in the room unlocking itself before a large white vinyl figure inflated up, the balloon-like robot standing in the folded down case. Looking at the two humans in the room, it blinked and turned to look down at its feet, stepping out of the case before hobbling up to the two of them.

“Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion,” the robot replied, raising a hand up and waving it in a circle. “What seems to be the problem, Hiro?”

“It’s nothing, Baymax,” Hiro sighed, falling onto his bed.

“I heard a sound of distress. Is something wrong?”

“Someone is just very aggressive.”

“And someone doesn’t know how to sneak out without people finding out,” Go Go retorted, placing her hands on her hips.

“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?”

“A zero,” Hiro groaned, sitting up and looking at both Go Go and Baymax. “I’m fine, really.”

“How did the bot fighting go?” Baymax questioned to the speedsters surprise, Hiro hitting his head in annoyance.

“Wait, Baymax knew?!” Go Go asked, looking at Hiro. “Why didn’t he tell us that?!”

“Because I convinced him it wasn’t danger- Ow!” Hiro began explaining before being cut off by another punch from Go Go, this time to the arm she hit the first time but lower down.

“On a scale of one to ten-”

“Zero!” Hiro yelled before sighing, getting up and walking over to his desk. As he sat down at it, he pulled out the recorder orb and set it carefully down on the table, watching the dull glow of the orb.

“I wonder what he put on this …” Hiro muttered as Go Go came up behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Whatever it is, you can bring it to the lab tomorrow,” Go Go responded, the university boy looking up at her curiously. “Did you really forget, genius? Everyone’s going to be tinkering with their projects tomorrow, except Fred of course.”

“But why can’t we watch now?”

“For one, I need to get going. I’ve got to get my bike back to the lab and get home.”

“Unless you decide to sleep there again while you work on the speed?”

“Two,” the adrenaline junkie continued, ignoring his comment, “knowing what that guy was capable of, that stuff on there could give you nightmares.”

“I’m not four anymore,” Hiro retorted, spinning his chair around. “I’m not going to get scared that easily.”

“Oh, so you weren’t gripping onto my waist tightly when he arrived?”

“And you weren’t frozen in place?” Hiro shot back, his boldness disappearing when she cracked the knuckles on both her hands and raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay, shutting up.”

“Good,” she said bluntly, flicking her fringe out of her eyes. “And three, the others are going to want to know about this as well, so we may as well see it with them anyway.”

“Fine,” Hiro pouted, pulling out his smiling Megabot from his hoodie and setting it down on the desk, the bot slumping into a lazy sitting position against his automatic pencil sharpener.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this, alright?” she said softly, crouching so she was at his eye height. When he looked up at her and gave her a nod, she flashed him a small caring smile. “And no more bot fighting, ‘kay? We don’t need this happening again, or you getting arrested.”

“Okay, I’ll stop,” Hiro replied. ‘ _Though you may rethink when you finally find out why I did it._ ’

“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” Go Go said as she turned and walked down the stairs. Hiro followed along a little behind her so that she wouldn’t notice him. When she reached the café, Hiro stopped at the top of the stairs to watch as Cass had one final conversation with her.

“Going already?” Aunt Cass asked, having just finished ringing Hiro’s friends to let them know that he was back home and safe. “You know, you’re always welcome to stay the night here.”

“No, thank you,” Go Go replied, running a hand through her raven black hair. “I need to get going. There are a few things I need to take care of before I head to bed.”

“Would you like a lift, then?” the café owner offered, walking around from the displays.

“Oh no, it’s okay. I’m happy riding back. Plus, who knows? Hiro might sneak out again if you leave,” the speedster joked, letting out a little laugh.

“I’m sure he’s learnt his lesson,” Cass replied, laughing as well, “but maybe just to be safe … Thank you again, Go Go.”

She quickly lunged forwards and wrapped her arms around the adrenaline junkie again, giving her another warm, tight hug. Not used to the affection and love that Cass so readily brings out to everyone, Go Go again awkwardly stood in her arms, giving her an uneasy hug back.

“Uh … d-don’t mention it,” she stammered, Hiro fighting hard not to laugh and give away his position.

When Aunt Cass finally let go of the speedster, she turned and walked out of the café pretty briskly, making sure she could get out of there before another potential hug. As soon as he saw her leaving, Hiro carefully snuck back up to his room, his feet making no sound on the wooden stairs. As soon as he got to his room, he jumped onto his bed and lay there, chuckling to himself about the adrenaline junkie’s obvious discomfort and uneasiness over his aunt’s warm thank giving, seeing her embarrassed face in his mind. He knew this was more due to her not being used to such fondness than anything else, despite the fact that she had hugged him nearly a year ago. While this happened, the friendly cuddly robot Baymax watched Hiro with its usual robotic stare, blinking every now and again.

“Your hormonal and neurotransmitter levels are rising.”

“Oh, shut up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same as usual, please let me know your thoughts, suggestions, etc. Constructive criticism is more than welcome. Also, in regards to Yama, I wrote this before the series began, hence his comments. 
> 
> See you in a week.


	3. The Morning After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The band of heroes take a look at the development of the grim new threat from the underground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a lot to say, just that there's a bit of an explanation as to where to go from here after the chapter. Onwards!

_BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!_

With a groan, Hiro woke up from his slumber, his hand lazily slapping down onto his digital alarm clock and turning off the alarm. He tiredly rolled over from his front onto his back, before sitting up and stretching his arms into the air. After hearing a small crack in his arms and shoulders, the robotics prodigy let out a sleepy yawn and dropped his arms, looking drowsily around his room as his brain tried to get out of its slumbered state.

“Good morning, Hiro. How did you sleep?” a robotic voice asked from nearby.

“Fine … Wait, B-Baymax?” the young Hamada yawned, rubbing his eyes and finally noticing the big white robot next to his bed. “What are you doing up?”

“Your aunt asked me to make sure you were awake,” the healthcare unit replied.

“I mean … why are you activated?”

“Your aunt requested that I help set things up in the café earlier. Then I helped serving customers until she asked me to get you up.”

“Oh … right. Of course,” Hiro said as he rubbed his eyes again.

After the events at Krei Tech Industries nearly a year ago, in the times that Baymax wasn’t at the San Fransokyo Institution of Technology with Hiro and the others, or when he wasn’t playing a part in their superhero group, he had taken to helping out Aunt Cass in her café. His round, gentle exterior made him a very calming figure for customers, and the kids loved seeing him there every day. It also didn’t hurt Aunt Cass that having a robotic member of staff was pretty rare at the time, making her little establishment an attraction and pulling in more customers. With Tadashi gone, the extra pair of helping hands was more than useful. Unfortunately, his usual fighting and healthcare chips weren’t equipped to deal with the tasks that waiting on tables and serving food and drink required, which resulted in more than a few catering accidents. So, at his aunt’s request, Hiro had managed to make a hospitality chip that aided the healthcare robot in accommodating to the new line of work. Now, Baymax could now be seen regularly at the Lucky Cat Café, serving numerous customers as he helped out Aunt Cass and Hiro, if he had time to work in the cafeteria. Even with Cass employing a couple more hands to help her out, and Hiro and his friends giving her a hand when they could and if she needed it, Baymax was always a great aid early in the morning when everyone else was still getting there.

“Your friends will be arriving soon,” Baymax reminded after a few seconds of silence, watching the young boy with his usual robotic stare.

“Huh? Oh, right. We’re going to the nerd lab today,” Hiro remembered, dragging himself out of bed.

“You may want to fix your bed head.”

Giving the robot a slightly confused look, the robotics prodigy sluggishly walked over to the mirror in his room and looked at the reflection. He saw his pair of pyjamas, complete with a picture of an atomic diagram on his white shirt and a square criss-crossing pattern on his sky and navy blue pants, slightly ruffled up from him rolling over in his sleep, along with his very messy hair which, instead of being the usual mop-like mess that it normally is, now sticks out all over the place.

“Right … Thanks bud. I’ll be downstairs soon,” Hiro responded after running his hand through his hair, his black raven hair brushing back with his hand before returning to its spiked out state. He let out another yawn and stretched as he walked out of his bedroom and headed into the bathroom, leaving the healthcare companion to slowly plod back down the two flights of stairs to re-enter the café.

After several minutes in which Hiro took a long, steamy hot shower to reinvigorate himself, get dressed and collect what he needed into a backpack, he finally came down the stairs into the kitchen, wearing his usual red hero t-shirt, peanut brown shorts and navy blue hooded jacket, with the black backpack slung over his right shoulder. Bouncing down the stairs, he was able to pick out a few of the usual customers sitting at small tables and booths, with his aunt walking around to the many morning customers with an apron around her waist and a round serving tray which she used to carry the glasses and plats, both full and empty, back and forth from the kitchen and the tables. Looking around, he also saw Baymax standing behind the register, trying to open it up with his big balloon hands, a couple of kids giggling as the robot continued to try and type in the order, his large hand and fingers making it extremely difficult for it to just press down on the one individual button each time.

‘ _We really need to get him a better system if he’s handling the money,’_ Hiro thought with an amused smile, chuckling silently to himself and shaking his head. ‘ _Maybe I can build another register for him with bigger buttons …’_

“ _Prrrr”_

“Hello, Mochi,” Hiro cooed to the tabby cat as he weaved between his legs, purring softly and looking up at the young boy. He reached down and picked up the cat, scratching his fur as he continued to purr. “Having a nice morning?”

“ _Meow.”_

“Hello, sweetheart,” Aunt Cass greeted as she spotted her nephew midway down the steps. “Sleep well?”

“I’m pretty sure I did,” he replied, putting Mochi down and letting the cat run away into the café, weaving between the tables and letting the young children pet him, lapping up the attention.

“Hey there, little man!” Wasabi called out from a nearby table, he and Honey Lemon waving at the robotics prodigy.

Wasabi No-Ginger had come in wearing his usual outfit; a fern green jumper, with a white t-shirt underneath, black trousers and black jikatabi shoes, with his yellow and white woven headband over his hair line. His brown hair was drawn back into the usual set of dreadlocks, completing his generally laidback look. Honey Lemon was dressed in a canary yellow cardigan, a 60s style lemon yellow shift dress, blush pink leggings, yellow platform high heels and orange frilly socks. Her golden hair had been pulled up into a bun at the top of her head with a few strands and bangs hanging down the sides of her face, while a pair of pink rimmed glasses sat on her nose in front of her eyes.

“Hey, Wasabi and Honey,” Hiro replied, running over to the two of them, each with a take-away cup in their hands. From the aroma drifting up from their drinks, Hiro guessed that Wasabi had ordered a latte and Honey had gotten a cappuccino.

“Oh, I’m glad you weren’t hurt last night,” Honey expressed as she rose up, wrapping her arms around Hiro and pulling him into her.

“I-I’m fine, Honey. Really,” Hiro insisted, feeling his face flush up a bit in embarrassment.

“Still, we were all so worried about you when Baymax called us,” Honey said, letting go of him and brushing a few strands of hair out from her face. “Please don’t do something like that again.”

“Speaking of,” Hiro said, trying to divert the topic of conversation away, “where are Go Go and Fred? I thought they were coming too.”

“When we went around to Fred’s, he was still sound asleep,” Wasabi explained, taking a drink out of his cup. “Mmm … nothing like a good latte to start the day off right.”

“So Heathcliff said he would wake him up and make sure he got to university,” Honey continued on, seeing as Wasabi had become enamoured with his drink.

“Mhmm … and Go Go messaged us earlier to say she would meet us at the lab,” Wasabi pointed out. “So we came straight here after that.”

“Oh, right. I hope that doesn’t mean she did end up spending the night at the lab,” Hiro responded, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m getting the feeling she’s been doing that a lot lately. She gets so focused on making her bike perfect.”

“Yeah, she needs to relax. Let loose,” Wasabi agreed, taking another drink from his cup.

“Would you like to be the one that says that to her?” Honey inquired with a smile.

“No, no I would not,” Wasabi answered quite confidently. “That girl would take my head off for even thinking it.”

“Well, maybe we can convince her to have some fun when her birthday comes around,” Hiro suggested, taking a seat with them. “It isn’t that far away, after all.”

“Have either of you got any ideas what we could do for her?” Honey asked, taking her cup and holding it in her hands. “I have a couple, but I’m not really sure if they’re any good.”

“Same thing here,” Wasabi answered, leaning back. “I’m not too sure whether she’d like them or not.”

“I’ve got a couple of plans, but I’m not too sure which would work best,” Hiro revealed. “I think I might wait and see how she’s feeling a couple of days away before deciding.”

“What do you have in mind?” Honey questioned, taking a sip of her coffee.

“Uh-uh, that’s a secret. I really want to surprise her with this.”

“Hiro, the last time someone tried to surprise Go Go, Fred ended up with a broken nose,” Honey Lemon pointed out softly.

“Yeah, and she nearly gave me one just for knowing,” Wasabi added, wincing at the memory.

“All the more reason for me to keep it a secret from you guys as well,” the young university student reasoned. “If it doesn’t go well, then I’m the only one that takes the fall.”

“Well, so long as you know what you’re doing,” Wasabi said.

“And maybe you can use your adorable cuteness to stop Go Go if she does lose it,” Honey added with a smile, rising from her seat.

“What?! Cuteness?!” Hiro responded in shock, looking over as Wasabi began laughing. “I am not cute.”

“Sure you are,” Wasabi chuckled. “Messy mop of hair, short height-”

“Big adorable eyes,” Honey added with a giggle.

“I may be many things, but cute is not one of them,” Hiro admonished, striding towards them as they walked towards the door. “I am sarcastic, charismatic, highly intelligent, macho and suave, but I am definitely not-”

“Take care, my cute little guy,” Cass interjected before they could leave, wrapping her arms around him.

“Aunt Cass!” Hiro whined as she hugged him, to the obvious amusement of his two friends.

“We’ll meet you in the car, our _cute little guy_ ,” Wasabi teased with a laugh before walking out of the café.

“Bye, Ms. Hamada,” Honey said, waving before following Wasabi outside.

“That really didn’t help my case,” Hiro moaned after the two older university students had left.

“Well, one of the biggest joys of parenting is getting to embarrass your kids,” Cass said with a cheeky smile, ruffling her nephew’s hair.

“Aunt Cass!” Hiro laughed, shaking his head and pushing her hand out of his already messy hair.

“I’ll send Baymax over when the others arrive. They let me know they’d be a little late, but it shouldn’t be much longer.”

“Alright. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay,” she replied, letting him turn around and walk a couple of steps before wrenching him back in. “Last hug.”

Hiro couldn’t help but be enveloped by her loving warmth and returned the hug, rubbing her back. When they let go of one another, Cass went back to serving customers and Hiro made to open the door. However, just as his hand touched the door, a sudden thought popped into his head.

‘ _Why do I feel like I’ve forgotten something …?’_ the robotics prodigy questioned himself. ‘ _Oh right, my phone! I left it on charge upstairs.’_

Quickly heading up the stairs into his room, Hiro entered and picked up his phone just as it went _ping_ , signalling a new message. He looked down at the screen to read the new message.

_Go Go: Remember to bring the recorder orb, genius. See you at the nerd lab._

“Oh, right, the orb. Nearly forgot,” Hiro said to himself, retrieving the small, dull blue orb from the desk where he had left it the night before and placing it into one of the pockets of his shorts before racing back downstairs. Exiting the building with the chime of the bells hanging from the door, Hiro jumped into the back of a small grey minivan, pulling the door shut behind him.

“What took you so long? Did your aunt smother you in little hugs and kisses?” Wasabi teased from the driver’s seat.

“No, I had forgotten my phone and went back for it,” Hiro explained grumpily to his mocking friend, clicking on his seatbelt as the vehicle kicked into life and rolled away.

“Here, Hiro. We got this for you before,” Honey interjected, reaching behind her and handing the teenager a take-away cup.

“Mmm … hot chocolate,” Hiro sighed, the warm chocolaty aroma wafting up his nose as he took hold of the cup. “Thanks, Honey.”

She smiled at him as he took a drink from the cup, the lukewarm liquid running down his throat Meanwhile, Wasabi had taken to trying to find a radio channel worth listening to while they were waiting for the traffic light ahead of them to turn green. Occasional flashes of music, sports commentary and news stories filtered through the static as Wasabi switched from channel to channel.

“You know you’ve gone past most of the good stuff?” Hiro joked, leaning forwards and resting in the gap between the front seat and passenger seat.

“I’m looking for the San Fransokyo News Station,” Wasabi retorted, sounding a little agitated. “Fred must’ve been fiddling with this when he borrowed it. I usually keep it on there.”

“How do you know it was Fred?”

“When he turned on the radio earlier, advertisements and readings of superhero stories blared out,” Honey explained, taking over Wasabi’s search as the lights turned green and traffic began to move once more.

“Don’t get me wrong, I do like the guy,” Wasabi pointed out, fixating his eyes on the vehicles and road in front of him while occasionally glancing towards the side and rear view mirrors. “It’s just that his carelessness gets to me sometimes … Plus I keep having to find my radio channels after he’s been in the car. He never puts it back!”

“Found it,” Honey announced as the introduction music began to play, signifying a return to the broadcast following some adverts.

“Yes! Thank you, Honey!” Wasabi cried out, throwing up a fist in front of him.

“Jeez, never knew anyone would be so excited about a radio station,” Hiro muttered to Honey Lemon with a smirk. She nodded her agreement, brushing a bang of her hair back around her ear.

“ _Good morning, and welcome to the San Fransokyo News Station,_ ” the news reporter greeted as the music faded away. “ _I am your host, Brett Jensen. Our top story today: Police are currently investigating a serious incident that occurred last night, leaving five people seriously injured._ ”

“What?!” Wasabi and Honey exclaimed, looking at the radio.

‘ _Oh no … this’ll be about him, won’t it?’_ Hiro thought, slumping back in his seat.

“ _Reports have flooded in about an attack within downtown San Fransokyo, which police estimate to have happened at 11:00pm at an underground fighting ring.”_

“Underground fights?!” Wasabi repeated in shock. “I thought all we had were bot fights!”

“Apparently that’s no longer the case,” Hiro chimed in.

“ _Footage of the event shows a man being beaten down in the ring by three other men before someone suspected to be another fighter ran inside to help, allowing others to get the assaulted man out. The heavily bruised and injured man was admitted to the San Fransokyo Public Hospital and is currently in a serious condition.”_

“That’s awful,” Honey remarked, holding her hands together while Hiro takes a nervous drink of his hot chocolate.

“ _As another man entered the ring to face down the individual who had interfered in their brutal attack, an unidentified stranger gate crashed the scene, causing everyone to flee. Police arriving at the scene found two of the three men involved in the assault in the ring bleeding and broken bones. The third man in the initial assault and their assumed accomplice were found unconscious in alleyways a few blocks away. At this stage, police suspect that the unknown individual suffocated him, the reasons for which are not currently known. All four men are believed to be part of a black market gang and are currently under hospital arrest.”_

“So, does this mean we have a vigilante on the loose?” Wasabi whispered, his voice rising as he appeared to be visibly shaken.

“Or maybe someone much more dangerous …” Hiro murmured, gripping his knuckles tightly as the car slowed to a stop at another set of traffic lights, Wasabi indicating that they would be turning left.

“Oh, that makes me feel so much better!”

“ _Police are warning people to be careful during late times and to stay in open, public areas. They are also requesting that anyone with any information of the event to come forward to help their investigation.”_

“Well …” Honey started, switching off the radio and turning to face Hiro after a moment of silence between the three of them, “now I’m really glad that GoGo managed to find you last night.”

“Mmm …” Hiro solemnly replied, drinking his hot chocolate.

“Is it too much to ask for even a month where there isn’t one guy going around hurting others?!” Wasabi asked, gripping the steering wheel tightly. “Now we find there are more illegal groups popping up and everything!”

“Let’s just take it easy. It could have simply been an internal dispute,” Honey pointed out, trying to find a more positive outlook.

“I guess we’ll have to look into this regardless?” Wasabi moaned, rubbing his eyes and turning at another intersection.

“Probably,” Hiro answered. “Even if this was a fight amongst a single group, if they’re going to endanger San Fransokyo and its civilians in the process, we have to do something to protect them.”

‘ _I’m just not liking the idea of having to face that person,_ ’ Hiro thought, finishing off his warm milky drink. ‘ _There’s something that feels … different about him. Not just like the standard criminals we normally deal with …’_

* * *

Several minutes of driving later after having heard about the attack on the radio, Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Hiro pulled into the university, stopping at a road gate just as they entered the complex. Walking out of a small booth which had the controls to the gate, an aging security guard strode up to them and giving them a wave, while another two could be seen lingering around the small building.

Ever since Professor Callaghan had been arrested following the incident at the then newly built Krei Tech Industries headquarters, security at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology had been increased. The aftermath of the destructive attack had led to a messy affair of questions and interviews by the police with both students and staff, with everyone reaching a consensus that security at the university should be increased to help prevent something like that happening again. Normally, the number of guards on patrol wouldn’t necessarily be too high, letting the students get to their lessons and work on their assignments without feeling too intimidated. However, as it was currently the holidays for the students at the campus, the number of guards on surveillance had been increased to make sure that nothing would be stolen by someone trying to break in. The university was still open, with just about every area still accessible to students wanting to work on projects on campus, but many students took their time off relaxing, exploring and travelling elsewhere.

“Good morning, Colin,” Honey greeted as Wasabi wound down his window, giving a small wave to the security guard.

“Hello, you three,” the security guard greeted in return, leaning against the car and looking in. “Heading in to work on some projects?”

“Yeah, may as well take advantage of the empty space,” Hiro replied with Wasabi and Honey nodding in agreement.

“Sounds like a plan. Sorry to have to do this to you, but I’m going to need to see your student cards.”

“No problem,” Wasabi said as they each pulled out their student ID cards and handed them to the security guard for him to inspect. “You’re just doing your job.”

“Nasty bit of work that happened last night, eh?” Colin remarked while he was checking their cards, clearly referencing the attack the radio mentioned.

“Oh … yeah. Awful,” Honey agreed, all three feeling a little uncomfortable.

“You know, despite it not looking like it had anything to do with the school, they still wanted to add more guards because of it,” the security guard explained as he handed their cards back to them.

“Well, you can’t be too cautious,” Wasabi commented, putting his card into one of his pockets.

“True, but you can be overly paranoid,” Colin replied gruffly, standing back up straight. “Anyway, you all are good to drive through when the gate’s open.”

“Right. Thank you.”

“Take care, kids,” the security guard said in farewell.

The gate swung out electronically, letting the three in their minivan drive on through into the campus grounds. Wasabi slowly drove them up the path, passing by stretches of green grassy hills that would otherwise be filled with students running around, playing games or lying around relaxing if they weren’t all away on vacation. They drove by the reception and one of the blocks of buildings, pulling up into a carpark that would be completely empty except for a couple of cars and motorbikes owned by a few professors and students. Getting out and grabbing their backpacks from the boot, Hiro taking his from the seat next to him, they walked over to the robotics and engineering block, greeting the guard that was waiting outside before entering the building. As they wandered through the building, they passed a couple of classrooms with two or three students sitting inside studying vigorously with their heads stuck in their workbooks, a common area where a few students were messing around and having fun, and a couple of singular workspaces like the one Tadashi had before his unfortunate demise, the students inside having left the windows looking in transparent while they worked. They were acknowledged by a couple that they would pass, and the odd professor or two they would pass also greeted them before moving on. The presence of others around served to remind them that, even if now was the time that they could relax and have fun, there were still those dedicated to their learning and to the teachings of others within their campus that strove to improve their world in their own way, just like their group of six – if you include Baymax – do.

Finally making it to the lab, they enter in to find a very empty and spacious area all around, a stark difference to the state that it normally would be in during the school semesters. Gone were the many various projects in robotics, engineering and chemistry, the equipment provided by the university neatly packed away while the projects remained with their students. Some would not be returning, those projects accompanying students who had graduated and passed their courses, moving on to bigger and better things. Soon, some new ideas and programmes would be developing in their place, freshman students taking up their own dreams and attempting to turn their theories and dreams into reality. In a fortnight’s time, the large lab would once more be bustling with noise, people and progress, but for now it remained empty save for the few items Hiro and his group were working on, a television left on with the news being programmed, and a lone woman hunched over a workbench, gulping down some water as she looked over many different pieces of paper.

“Hey, Go Go!” Wasabi called out, tossing his empty latte cup into a nearby bin. The three waved at her who nodded back in acknowledgement before returning to her workings.

“Well, she’s certainly in a good mood,” he muttered sarcastically as he walked over to his usual area and set his backpack down, squealing in surprise as a yellow disc hurtled its way towards him. The big, gentle man ducked and turned away, shrieking as he brought his hands up in front to protect himself, though calming down a little once the disc passed overhead, bouncing off the wall behind him.

“I heard that,” Go Go declared as her yellow mag-lev disc sped back through the air towards her, catching it on her suit’s glove before tossing the piece of equipment to the side, the glove landing on a seat set against the wall that rested a couple more mag-lev discs and her black jacket.

“Why is it everything always so serious with her?” Wasabi questioned as he began setting up his plasma firing poles, Go Go showing a small smirk upon hearing his comment.

“Hey Go Go! What’s up?!” Hiro shouted as he leapt up onto her workbench, scattering a couple of her notes.

“What do you think you’re doing, nerd?” she asked him, her deadpan face meeting his lopsided grinning expression.

“Uh, saying hello to you,” Hiro cheekily answered, sitting down and resting his head in a hand, the arm poised against his leg. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

“It looks like you’re asking for another bruise,” she replied casually, walking over to her mag-lev bike hanging up from the roof and turning the pedals around, running a finger along the edge of the spinning rear wheel. “Where’s Fred?”

“Still on his way, probably,” Honey answered, wheeling a long, thin island table into her section before grabbing some glass chemical instruments while Hiro slid off Go Go’s bench, rubbing his tender bruises through the sleeves of his jacket. “He was still asleep when we went to his place. Heathcliff said he’d get him here.”

“Figures,” Go Go replied, pulling the rear wheel out of its magnetic axis and laying it down on the bench.

Hiro glanced at the television as he made his way over to his section, which happened to be right between Go Go’s and Wasabi’s. Looking up at it, he saw the story currently on was based on the upcoming International Mixed Fighting Championship event, the 100th pay-per-view instalment and the first being held in San Fransokyo. Currently, they were hyping the main event title match between the reigning heavyweight champion Takanori Nakamura and the number one contender Dagran Ortez, with an interview between a reporter and the heavyweight champion currently showing. Turning away from the screen, Hiro pulled out a couple of his microbots encased in a petri dish, the right glove to his combat suit and his laptop, setting them down onto the workbench in his section. He flipped open and turned on his laptop, putting in the password before walking out into the corridor and entering his private office and workspace, the same one that his brother Tadashi had before his death, and collecting a few tools and portable drives, carrying them back into the laboratory. When he walked back in, he noticed that Wasabi had his laser induced plasma gate powered up and buzzing, the student fiddling around with the energy components and trying different calibrations to see their affect, and Honey already carefully pouring out different chemicals and quantities into beakers and flasks. The robotics prodigy, seeing his friends getting down to work, walked back to his zone and laid his gathered equipment down before plugging in one of the portable drives, feeling a soft touch on his shoulder. Glancing at his shoulder and seeing the black, fingerless gloved hand resting there, he looked past to see Go Go standing just behind him, peering down at his work.

“Did you bring the orb?” she inquired, moving beside him.

“Yeah, it’s in my pocket,” he answered, reaching a hand into one of the pockets in his shorts and discretely letting her see before letting the orb disappear back into the confines of his clothes. “I’m just waiting for the right time to show them.”

“Good, good …” she replied, leaning up against his workbench with her sleeveless arms crossed over her chest. “Do the others know?”

“They know about the attack, but they don’t know that you and I were there,” he responded, clicking onto one of the files on the drive he plugged in and loading up a program containing notes, designs and codes for Baymax’s carbon fibre armour. “They heard from a news station on the radio.”

“Figures,” she sighed before letting out a yawn. “They’ve been covering it for half the morning. How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know,” Hiro said, slumping down into a nearby chair and rubbing his temples. “I don’t know how I feel about all this. I don’t want to think about what he did and what he could do, and I’m not sure what we need to do about it all right now.”

The speedster’s eyes fell to the floor as she nodded. “Same here.”

“ _I’m afraid we’ll have to leave that story now for some breaking news, with more information of last night’s attack.”_ the female news reporter, the name caption below identifying her as Sarah Charalambous, said, cutting away from a video package on a new exhibition arriving at the San Fransokyo Museum to the news studio. The interests of the four university students perked up as they all came together, looking up at the television screen in silence.

“ _In the look for more witnesses to come forward, and as a warning for the citizens of San Fransokyo, police have released video footage of the event last night that they received from a person they managed to capture and arrest last night.”_

Faint scattering and squeaking can be heard outside the lab as a silhouette slides around on the polished floors before bursting through the doors.

“Wassup, guys?!” Fred exclaims as he rushes through the door. The school mascot was dressed in his baggy fainted red t-shirt with the Kaiju imprint over the chest, a plain white long sleeved shirt underneath, and baggy sage green cargo shorts, holding up a large enclosed parcel in his hands while his school sign is strapped in with his black superhero themed backpack. “Guess what I got sent!”

“Uh … guys? Helloooooo?” Fred says as he walks up to the four university students, none of them having turned around to acknowledge him when he entered. “Oh no, I’m a ghost! I’ve become a ghost!”

“Quiet, nitwit,” Go Go growled, not turning away from the TV as Fred frantically touched his chest and arms, checking to make sure he hadn’t turned into an apparition. Sighing in relief that he hadn’t suddenly died and turned into a spirit, Fred also turned to the TV screen to see what they were looking at.

“ _Due to the gruesome nature of the video, we have been advised to only show a portion of the film,_ ” the news reporter stated. “ _Even so, we advise that anyone who has any issues with viewing violence, blood and bodily harm to look away now.”_

The footage started playing, a slightly blurred video filmed by what appeared to be a simple mobile phone. The recording begins with showing moments of the three thugs beating down the first fighter, excoriating and pummelling his body, before Jason Thompson, the young fighter, leapt over the cage meshing to protect the badly injured man.

“Whoa …” Fred said glumly, watching the scene.

“How awful,” Honey gasped, placing a hand over her mouth.

The footage continued on, with the young fighter facing off with the thugs while the beaten down man was dragged from the makeshift arena. Both Hiro and GoGo watched gloomily as the scene they had witnessed hours ago playing before them once more, angry that they couldn’t have done anything themselves to stop the assault from happening. The adrenaline junkie clenched her hands together tightly into a pair of fists, her fingernails digging sharply into her gloves, while the young genius huffed and folded his arms across his chest, glancing down at his feet.

“ _Police are yet to identify the man in the ring that helped to stop the initial assault,”_ Sarah Charalambous announced as the recording continued, with the fourth thug joining the others in the arena before the clattering trash can announcing the arrival of the shrouded individual.

The five watching in the lab could hear the young fighter yelling at people to escape the vicinity as the hooded man strode menacingly up to the arena, before jumping out himself to get his things and assist in getting the man he saved away. The person filming turned their phone to the ground and seemed to stagger a little as they tried to escape with the others, before turning back and filming more of the incident. When the camera rose up again to the arena, the four thugs still stood in the centre of the makeshift arena seemingly frozen in place, with the menacing man now stood in the cage with them, long steel bar in hand.

“Who in the world is that?!” Wasabi shouted.

“No idea,” Hiro murmured in response.

One of the thugs ran out towards the hooded foe, looking to swing at him with his large steel pole. The hooded man parried the attack, holding the pole horizontally in front of his head to catch the downwards swing, before forcefully shoving the attacker back and swiping one end of the pole at the long pole wielder and striking him in the centre of his face. The thug dropped to the floor, clutching his face as blood poured out from his crooked nose, bent out of place, heavily implying his nose had been badly broken. The baseball bat wielder ran forwards next, his swing being parried like his previous companion’s had been, but he managed to bring his shield up to block the hooded foe’s heavy swing.

While the footage continued to play, with the sounds of frantic murmuring as well that sounded like it was from the studio as opposed to being part of the recording, the door to the lab opens with a click and is pushed out slowly. Walking through with small stumpy steps was Baymax, the robotic healthcare companion turning his head to look around blankly before bumbling over to the group of five students, blinking at the TV screen with its robotic stare.

The baseball bat thug tried to shield bash the unearthly stranger, but the staggering attack was caught in the hand by the hooded man. Using a vast amount of strength he wrenched the thug forwards before twisting his shield arm behind his back. The remaining unharmed thug and the thug leader both turned and proceeded to scramble out of the ring as the nightmarish fighter thrust his lone weapon between the back and the twisted arm of the baseball bat wielder. With the two thugs having clambered out of the arena, they watched in horror as the hooded man violently wrenched back on the top of the pole, causing a very crack to sound out as the base of the weapon pushed out fiercely against his arm, breaking the shoulder.

The five students all cringe at the sound of the bone breaking and being wrenched from its socket at the ruthless jerk of the weapon, Honey turning away from the screen while Wasabi’s cheeks puffed out quickly, the man covering his mouth with his hand before running over to a bin and throwing up in it. Hiro runs a nervous hand through his hair as the thug lets out an excruciating shriek, clutching at his broken arm while his two companions that had climbed out of the arena flee the scene.

“ _I would like to apologise for the scenes that were broadcast,”_ the news reporter expressed regretfully, clearly shaken up. “ _The images at the end were not intended to be shown on the program, so on behalf of the news station I apologise.”_

Wasabi walked back over to the group and they all looked tentatively up at the television screen as the female news reporter collected her notes, neatening them up before looking back at the camera.

‘ _Police are yet to identify the hooded man in the footage, though they have reason to believe that he is a notorious anonymous murderer connected to a few cold cases around the world,”_ Sarah reported a little shakily. “ _Again, they ask that anyone with any information contact them and come forwards to help in the investigation.”_

GoGo reaches over to a nearby workstation and grabs the television remote off of a bench, pointing it at the screen and turning the TV off. The lab was filled with silence as they all retreated into their minds, trying to deal with what they had just seen and heard. Baymax waddled over to Hiro and looked down at him, the robot’s lenses blinking as it stared at the young boy.

“Your neurotransmitter levels are dropping,” Baymax reported. “Have you been feeling sick?”

“No, Baymax. I’m fine,” Hiro replied, looking a little gloomily up at the robot his brother had originally designed. “Just wondering about what to do with all these new developments.”

Hiro’s gaze returned down to his feet before he could feel the vinyl touch of Baymax’s arms wrapping around him, before the balloon-like head of the robot rested on top of Hiro.

“Treatments for sadness include compassion and physical reassurance,” Baymax stated as he held Hiro, the small boy cracking a small smile at the robot’s antics.

“I’m okay, Baymax.”

“You will be alright,” Baymax reassured, patting Hiro’s head. “There, there.”

“Thanks, Baymax,” Hiro said, shaking himself out of the robotic companion’s grip. “Were you able to scan the information of the hooded man?”

“My scanners are unable to retrieve the medical information of a person in a recording,” the robot explained. “Only if they are physically in front of me can I scan them.”

“Oh, okay. I guess that makes sense,” the robotics prodigy replied. “It was worth checking.”

“I don’t understand this,” Wasabi commented, looking around at the others. “A vicious attacker and a murderer?”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions. We don’t know that he is a murderer,” Honey pointed out.

“They just said that the police have reason to believe he is!” Wasabi replied, gesturing to the now blank screen.

“If he is a killer, then why didn’t he take the lives of those four thugs? There wasn’t anything stopping him from doing it,” Hiro reasoned.

“Imagine, a new supervillain …” Fred said, slightly awed. “A new powerful foe for Fred’s Angels to fight against!”

“For the last time, Fred, we are not called Fred’s Angels,” Wasabi stated disparagingly, rubbing his temples.

“Why not? It’s an awesome name, full of vigour and valour,” Fred debated, jumping up onto a bench. “I’ve been working hard on the theme song for us too.”

“Fred, I swear to god-”

“Guys, please. This isn’t the time to fight each other,” Honey pointed out, stepping between the two.

“You guys need to know something,” Go Go interjected, making the three that had been arguing look at her. “Hiro and I were at that arena last night just as that happened.”

“What?!” Honey, Wasabi and Fred exclaimed.

“What were you two doing at an illegal fight?” Wasabi questioned.

“We didn’t intend to be there,” Go Go defended. “I rescued this _genius_ here from the clutches of some unhappy people, before stopping off in another set of alleys to check on my bike. Hiro heard some cheers and thought it was another bot fight.”

“Hiro, you went bot fighting?” Honey asked, the young university student wincing at the speedster’s declaration.

“Uh … I might have …” the teenage boy grimaced. “Look, can we not get into this now? We have something else that seems just a little more important to talk about.”

“Alright, but I want an explanation later,” Honey gave in. “Please continue, Go Go.”

“Climbing up a building, we saw it was an underground fight instead of a bot fight,” Go Go continued. “Hiro wanted to stay and watch because, as he said, he thought that Baymax learning another style of fighting would be beneficial.”

“Would learning another combat style help my healthcare protocol?” Baymax queried, tilting his inflated head slightly.

“It would help you keep us healthy by protecting us,” Hiro explained, “Same as you learning karate.”

“Should I add it to my healthcare database?”

“No, I’ll give you another data chip.”

“We watched one fight and the end of another, before we started leaving. We ran back when we heard the first man being beaten up, then that young fighter that jumped in to stop the attack told everyone to run when the man in the cloak and armour turned up. So that’s what we and everyone else did,” Go Go concluded.

“There’s something else as well,” Hiro added as well, taking the recorder orb out of his pocket and holding it in his closed hand. “As we rode away, we ended up seeing what he did to the leader of that gang. It … well … it wasn’t pretty.”

“He was the guy who walked into the cage last,” Go Go pointed out, nodding along slowly with Hiro’s last statement. “The one with the chain around his hand.”

“I don’t know that I even want to know what he did,” Wasabi muttered nervously, running a hand through his dreadlocks.

“Well, we saw that he dropped this on the thug when he was finished with him,” Hiro mentioned, holding up the recorder orb in his hand for the others to see. Fred, Wasabi and Honey all leant in closely to look at the orb, Baymax slowly plodding over with his vinyl legs squeaking along the floor as they come down before also analysing the orb, robotic eyes blinking with his gaze.

“A recorder orb?” Fred questioned as Wasabi picked it up, holding it up close to his face. “What’s so special about that? Krei Tech has been distributing those ever since we helped them develop them.”

“This is a rarer orb,” Wasabi examined, raising the orb between his fingers and lifting it up towards the lab lights. “It appears to be one that can record everything around it within the set rendering distance. The normal ones just film within a set frame dimension limit.”

“What’s on it?” Honey asked as Wasabi returned the orb to Hiro.

“We don’t know, we hadn’t checked yet,” Hiro answered. “Go Go thought we should wait till we saw you all today and watch it then.”

“Well, let’s get it set up then,” Fred suggested, clasping his hands together.

Working together, Fred, Go Go, Wasabi, Honey and Baymax started carrying and pushing any tools, gear, equipment and tables that were placed around the centre of the room and moving them over to the edges of the room, any of their own personal effects into their own work zones. In the meantime, Hiro moved over to his workspace and pulled out some cables from within a desk which he then plugged into his laptop, along with a small attachment with a circular holder in the centre. Typing away on the keyboard, he opened up a program designed to work alongside their recorder orbs, giving him control over the playback of the footage.

With the program completely loaded up, Hiro moved his laptop onto a portable island bench, sitting it on an open ledge just below the benchtop, and pushed it out into the centre of the room just as the others all finished cleaning up. With the island positioned where he wanted it, Hiro moved off to collect Baymax’s helmet while Fred carried over a device looking like a thin tall plasma ball, only without the spherical covering around the dark blue ball tip. Fred proceeded to plug two of the cables Hiro brought over into the device – made to help project out images and recordings caught in the recording orb, attaching one into the robotics prodigy’s laptop and the other into a power socket in the wall, while Hiro used the last cable to plug Baymax’s helmet to the laptop, the visor illuminating along with the spherical tip of the device as it was connected. With all the preparations done, the group all pulled out a pair of shades, called RecoLenses, each from a draw of the island bench, the glasses simply looking like sunglasses with tinted dark blue visors.

“Ok, let’s see what we’ve got here,” Hiro muttered as he and the other humans put on their RecoLenses.

As soon as the glasses cover over their eyes, their visual surroundings changing from the rainbow of available colours; the whites of the walls and floor, the matte pastels of orange, teal and blue painting the otherwise traditional laboratory look, the dull greys, yellows and oranges of the diverse, delicate and technical equipment, the blank slates of the occasional whiteboard scattered around the work area - some with writing sprawled all over and some completely clean, the otherwise colourful bindings and coverings to their many numerous workbooks, the industrial colour pallet of their workbenches and tables, and the icy frosted glass windows peppering the walls, all currently not being illuminated by the bright fluorescent lights fitted into the ceiling above, as it was all covered with a deep blue filter. And as the filter came over their eyes, it revealed the scene caught by the recorder orb projected all around them in an electric blue light, the projection device acting as the epicentre of the spherical projection.

Stepping out slightly to the side, Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Fred all seem to gasp as they see a gargantuan image of the unidentified hooded foe, dressed in his shadowy, ruinous garb, the details of the demonic armour etched quite vividly into the projection. Due to the now apparent positioning of the orb in proportion to the armour of the intimidating man, all they could see of him was the front of the person, his armour and garbs, while the face of the individual remained shrouded by the hood of his cloak. Looking to the other figure in the projection, they could make out the other person to be one of the members of the gang that was mentioned in the assault – Go Go and Hiro knowing that he was the leader of the gang, his face completely etched in terror and fright with his mouth open as if to scream. Within the rest of the projection, they could also see the brick wall that the mysterious individual had slammed the cowering thug leader against, his arms covered in spikes and spines thrust out as his hands grabbed at the scruff of the gang man’s shirt, along with some of the nearby surroundings; a couple of trash bags and rubbish cans lining the walls and the occasional piece of litter scattering the cool concrete floor beneath them. From their own experiences having witnessed the frightening event, Go Go and Hiro both noted that they could not spy the scythe that the grim-looking figure wielded, or the dumpster that the thug leader was eventually hurled against. They all also observed that neither of the two members of their group could be seen in the footage, leaving both the speedster and the prodigy to internally sigh in relief.

“Whoa …” Honey murmured near breathlessly as she stared at the holographic clip before her.

“Hey genius, think you could scale it down a bit?” Go Go asked the robotics genius, the teenage boy responding by picking up his laptop and typing a few commands into the computer until the people in the scene were roughly the same height as they normally would be.

“The design is incredible!” Fred marvelled as he looked over the devilish garbs of the hooded man, a hand over his chin.

“Fred-” Wasabi piped up cautiously.

“Such attention to detail to so easily grasp the immense factor of fear and intimidation,” Fred continued, completely ignoring Wasabi. “I’m telling you, this guy could very easily be a supervillain-”

“Fred!” Wasabi said slightly louder, though still carrying the timid tone in his voice. “This is not the time!”

“Whenever you guys are ready,” Hiro interrupted before Fred could speak back, giving both of his friends a slight glance.

“Go for it,” Go Go responded, seconded by Honey Lemon giving him a tense nod, leading Hiro to tap a key on his laptop which caused the scene to start playing.

As the recorder orb played back the incident from the previous night it had filmed, the group watched on with tentative attention, the four that had not seen the event last night observing closely while Hiro and Go Go viewed it with a slightly queasy feeling running deep within them.

“Oh no! We’re dealing with the grim reaper!” Fred exclaimed as the nightmarish stranger unhooked his scythe from his back and swung it around with force, pinning the thug leader against the brick wall. “Everybody run!”

While Fred dove for cover, looking to hide from the recorded foe, Honey Lemon let out a gasp and covered her mouth at the same time that Wasabi let out a little squeal as they watched the scythe be embedded into the solid brick wall, just barely missing the neck of the gang head.

“It’s not the grim reaper, dimwit,” Go Go exasperatedly sighed, picking Fred up off the ground and hauling him back up to his feet.

“Oh, right. Of course …” Fred chuckled sheepishly to himself as he rubbed the back of his neck before continuing to watch the footage.

The recorder orb continued to play back more and more of the event, the local band of heroes observing nervously as the nightmarish individual continued his interrogation, terrorising the hapless and helpless gang leader. The ruffian stammered and trembled as he continued to fearfully answer the questions poised for him by the hooded stranger, trapped in the unmoving vice of scythe handle and alleyway wall until the cloaked individual jerked the scythe out of the bricks. The weapon disappeared from sight of the recorder as the attacker moved it around to their back seemingly to hook it in place as the thug dropped from his temporary suspension, clutching and rubbing his neck as he was left gasping for air. The expressions of the six watching, save for Baymax, turned to a mix of concern, worry and fear as the gang leader was then wrenched up in the arms of the cloaked stranger, choking him out before hurling his limp body into the dented dumpster. Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Hiro all grimace and turn away as the thug’s body slams into the disposal unit with a dull heavy thud, indenting the dumpster further before rolling unconsciously to the cold concrete ground.

“That’s just cruel,” Honey Lemon commented as the three turned their heads back to the recording as the hooded figure reached inside their worn cloak and pulled out the orb, their projected fingers gripping the space behind and beneath the group as they looked around the room with their RecoLenses.

As the projection closed in on the individuals covered face, the change in angle brought the mouth of the attacker into view but still couldn’t render the remaining features of the face being cloaked in fabric and dark shadow. In a soft growl the stranger bared some of their teeth, a couple seemingly shaped like fangs of a beast.

“ _I know who you are; I know what you’ve done. And I’m sure you know of me_ ,” the stranger said in a low growl, their voice revealing them to indeed be male. “ _Now that I have your attention, know that I am coming for you and all who work with you. Cherish these last precious days of freedom, because when I find you I will drag you down and everything you own with you. And any who dare stand in my way will fall by your side. No longer will you terrorise this world. You will be brought to justice and I will make you pay for your crimes. And you will rest in peace nevermore.”_

With the slight movement of his thumb and a soft click, the recording comes to its end with the still projection on the grim ominous growl of the male attacker. After they all silently look at the image for a few seconds, one by one they remove their RecoLenses and rested them on the table, Hiro having to reach up and remove Baymax’s helmet from its head before unplugging the cable connected to it.

“Looks like we have a bit of a situation then,” Fred remarked thoughtfully as he leaned up against a workbench, breaking the tense silence between the group.

“A bit?! A bit of a situation?!” Wasabi repeated in a high pitched voice. “This is a huge situation! He said he wants to kill someone! And he’s going to take out anyone who stands up to him!”

“So, pretty much your stereotypical mass murderer then?” Go Go questioned, glancing at the hysterical big man.

“More an assassin, or a bounty hunter,” Fred suggested, walking over to his bag and rummaging inside. “Maybe one of my comics has something …”

“Comics? Why do I feel like I’m the only one taking this seriously?! Wasabi exclaimed, burying his head in his hands.

“We are taking this seriously, Wasabi,” Honey Lemon pointed out, an unsettled expression etched into her face. “But panicking about it isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

“Yeah, woman up,” Go Go said bluntly, walking over to Wasabi and hitting him firmly across his shoulder.

“What’re you thinking, Hiro?” Honey Lemon questioned as she looked at the robotics prodigy currently sitting down in a chair with a brooding face on.

“Something just doesn’t seem to add up to me,” he explained, causing them all to look at him. “The reporter said that this man is considered to be a murderer, right? But here it seems like he’s seeking to administer retribution on his target.”

“Sometimes killers can have a sense of honour,” Honey Lemon said, though seemingly unsure of herself.

“And just because someone is a vigilante doesn’t mean that they won’t kill someone if they think they deserve it,” Go Go added, with Fred nodding in agreement. “We really don’t have a lot to go on this time.”

“You and Hiro both saw that attack, right?” Wasabi questioned Go Go.

“That’s right.”

“Well, how did you manage to get away from him? Did he just not see you?”

“Oh no, he saw us,” Hiro answered. “He saw us just after he’d finished up with the recording.”

“How did you escape him?” Fred questioned, looking anxious along with Honey and Wasabi.

“We might not have had the police not shown up,” Hiro continued. “He fled when their cars showed up in one of the entrances for the alleyway, climbing up one of the buildings. We ended up running away as well, so that we weren’t caught by them either.”

“You guys are very lucky …” Wasabi sighed in relief, slumping down into another chair.

“So what should we do now?” Honey Lemon questioned, looking around at all of them.

“Probably best if we try and get as much information on this guy as we can,” Hiro proposed, his gaze angled a little down at the floor. “The more we know about this person, the-”

Hiro stopped short as the doors to the lab clicked open, causing everyone to look round as the entranceway swung apart. Standing in the doorway was a man, they judged to be a little over six feet tall, wearing a pair of slightly baggy black sports pants with two white stripes going down the outside of each leg, an open tanned brown leather jacket covering a plain steel grey cloth shirt. Slung over one shoulder was a black, red, white and grey backpack, hanging just next to a long braid of brown hair, leading down from the head covered by a hickory brown Stetson. His white cross trainers left little noise on the floor as he moved slowly inside.

“Uh, g’day there,” he greeted in an even voice, taking off his hat and revealing his weatherworn face, slightly covered with various scars and cuts – especially around his left eye – and grizzled brown sideburns leading down from his hair and along his jawline. Both Go Go and Hiro’s eyes seem to light up a little in surprise at the sight of him, though it went unnoticed by the others.

“Um, hi there,” Honey greeted back with a little wave. “Who are you?”

“The name’s Jason. Jason Thompson.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is the last of the three chapters I had pre-written. The rest, at least the main plot points, are still planned out and vividly in my head. I just haven't gotten round to writing it. Why well, when I had started this, I was still in high school, and that could drain my motivation at any given time. I was also really pissed off later with school regardless, especially in the later years - that's what happens when you keep lying to your students, not like they'll ever get that point though. I also had some other ideas I wanted to work on as well, and still do. Anyways, point is I've got some plans for major points, but the smaller details and how everything ties together isn't set in stone until it gets written. This is why I generally ask if you have any suggestions or ideas. Sometimes there's one that I like and use - giving credit where it's deserved - otherwise it all comes together on the fly. 
> 
> So, with that in mind, please feel free to give any criticism, thoughts, suggestions, ideas, etc. Any and all are welcome. I don't know when the next chapter will come. It'll be when I get a sudden spark of inspiration for writing this again. Until then, please be patient. Catch you then.


End file.
